Rub' al Khali desert on the border of Oman and the Emirate of Dubai

© Daniel Schoenen/Offset by Shutterstoc

Info. Rub' al Khali desert on the border of Oman and the Emirate of Dubai

An unlikely tree stands in the Rub' al Khali desert in the Arabian Peninsula. The Rub' al Khali, meaning the ‘Empty Quarter’, spreads across 650,000 square kilometres. It is the largest area of continuous sand in the world, covering most of south-east Saudi Arabia, with smaller portions in Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. One of the driest places on Earth, almost nobody lives in Rub' al Khali, and much of the desert remains unexplored. Some of the dunes are as high as 250 metres, and the sand can be so soft that vehicles, camels and people may get stuck.