Arabian desert
Desert region, Arabian Peninsula.
Photograph:The Rubʿ al-Khali sand
desert, most of which lies within Saudi Arabia.
The Rubʿ al-Khali sand desert, most of which lies within Saudi Arabia.
It covers about 900,000 sq mi (2,330,000 sq km), occupying
nearly the entire peninsula. It lies largely within Saudi Arabia but large
portions extend into Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates,
Oman, and Yemen. Its relief is broken by a number of mountain ranges, with
elevations reaching as high as 12,000 ft (3,700 m), and it is bounded on three
sides by high escarpments. At least one-third of the desert is covered by sand,
including the Rubʿ al-Khali, considered to have one of the
most inhospitable climates on Earth. There are no perennial bodies of
water, though the Tigris-Euphrates river system lies to the northeast and the
Wadi Ḥajr is located to
the south, in Yemen. Humans have inhabited the area since Pleistocene times.
Source: Britannica encyclopedia
