Picture Gallery
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A field trip by scientists to the Empty Quarter
© David Given
The Empty Quarter, or Rub' al Khali, is also known as the Great Sandy Desert. It is one of the largest sand deserts in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including southern Saudi Arabia, and areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometers (250,000 square miles). Most of it consists of massive rolling sand dunes, but to the west there are gravel plains that rise towards the mountains of the Asir; and to the east there are salt pans near the Arabian Gulf. |
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the south-east, and Yemen on the south. To the north-east lies the Persian Gulf, and to the west is the Red Sea. The capital is Riyadh, a city of more than 4 million people.
