Abstract: The inclined shaft, a special underground engineering structure, is directly connected to the surface and the underground. It is burdened with the important tasks of coal transportation, material transportation, ventilation and pedestrian passage in the mine, and constitutes an important link in the safe and efficient production of the coal mine. However, the distribution of water-rich areas in the surrounding rock of the inclined shaft has always been a significant factor influencing the stability of the inclined shaft. Based on this, in order to clarify the distribution of water-rich areas in the surrounding rock of the inclined shaft of Xiaobaodang Coal Mine, in this paper, the ground penetrating radar detection method is employed to detect the water-rich areas in the surrounding rock of the main inclined shaft and the auxiliary inclined shaft of Xiaobaodang No.1 Coal Mine and No.2 Coal Mine respectively. Firstly, the inclined shaft is detected by taking advantage of the difference in current propagation of the stable current of the ground penetrating radar in different media. The detected radar data are subjected to signal processing to obtain profile diagrams with better details and easier judgment. Then, the range of unfavorable geological bodies in the surrounding rock behind the shaft wall is roughly delineated through the profile diagrams. Subsequently, a comparative analysis is conducted with the actually measured water seepage areas on the site to eliminate other unfavorable geological bodies（such as stratigraphic junction, surrounding rock lithology change junction, empty areas behind the wall, fault and fracture and other geological structures）, thereby obtaining the potential distribution of water-rich areas in the surrounding rock. Practice indicates that the error of applying this method to distinguish the water-rich areas in the surrounding rock of the shaft is relatively small compared with the actual drilling exploration, and the distribution of water-rich areas can be obtained relatively accurately. The research can provide important reference and strong support for the stability protection of the coal mine shaft.