- Area: 650,000 sq. M. km.
- Height above sea level: 800 m
Rub al-Khali is a large desert on the Arabian Peninsula. It is one of the five largest deserts in the world, occupying an area of 650 thousand square meters. km. Desert Rub al-Khali on the map is easy to find - it is located on the territory of 4 countries: Oman, UAE , Yemen and Saudi Arabia, but is rightly considered a tourist attraction of the UAE, since it occupies most of this state.
General information
Rub-al-Khali is not only one of the largest on the planet, it also:
- the largest of sand deserts;
- one of the hottest; in July-August the air temperature here often exceeds + 50 ° С, the average maximum in these months is + 47 ° С, and the sand on hot days is heated up to + 70 ° С;
- one of the driest - the annual rainfall rate barely reaches 35 mm, with the evaporation rate exceeding 2000 mm;
- According to LifeGlobe, Rub-al-Khali is the most beautiful desert in the world.
Previously, the desert was called Faj El-Hadley, which translates as "empty valley". It is under this name that it is mentioned in manuscripts of the 15th century. Later it became known as Rab-el-Khali - "empty territory", "empty land", even later "slave" was transformed into "rub"; The modern name can be translated as "empty quarter". By the way, in English Rub-al-Khali is called - Empty quarter. However, in fact, the desert occupies much more 1/4 of the Arabian Peninsula - almost a third.
From the height, the desert seems almost flat, but the height of its dunes reaches 300 m in some places. And due to the monsoon south-west winds (they are called "harif" here) dune-shaped dunes form barkhans in the form of a crescent moon.
The sand here is mainly silicate, in which about 90% is quartz, and 10% is feldspar. It has an orange-red color due to the iron oxide covering the feldspar grains.
Desert dwellers
Despite the climatic conditions in which it would seem impossible to survive, the desert is inhabited. Here there are not only scorpions, snakes and lizards, as one might suppose, but also rodents, and even larger animals, in particular - antiseptic beys, whose weight can reach hundreds of kilograms.
Population
Rub-al-Khali was once inhabited: scientists believe that about 5 thousand years ago there were several large cities on its territory, including Ubar, written about by Herodotus and Ptolemy and called "The City of a Thousand Pillars" and " Atlantis of the Sands. "
People live in the desert and now: in its territory there are several oases, the most famous of which are Liva , El-Ain and El-Jiva. The population of oases is engaged in agriculture and traditional crafts, as well as nomadic cattle breeding - not only camels but also sheep are bred here.
In the east of Rub al-Khali in the second half of the 20th century, large oil and gas deposits were discovered; Here, the extraction of these minerals takes place here and now.
Entertainment
Tourists like to ride on dunes on off-road cars - this kind of entertainment is called safari . Staying in one of the oases, you can find other entertainment. For example, to ride on dunes on special boards resembling surfboards, or on skis. Guests are also offered races on quad bikes. You can visit the stylized Bedouin camp.
By the way, during such walks, you can find a lot of abandoned cars, including SUVs and truck water-carriers, which in the Rub-al-Khali desert deliver water to where it is needed. Such landscapes resemble scenery for films in the style of cyberpunk.
How to visit the desert?
View the desert there are many ways - how completely "civilized" and even comfortable, and those on which not every extreme will be decided. For example, from Abu Dhabi to the oasis of Liva leads a beautiful six-lane highway.
You can go from Abu Dhabi to Livu and through Khameem - there is a two-lane road, also very high-quality. You can look at the desert, driving along the border with Oman and with Saudi Arabia. And the most daring can order a safari in Rub al-Khali. Visiting the desert is better in winter - at this time the temperature here is quite comfortable (about + 35 ° C).