Rub' al Khali
2050Koordinaten: 20 ° 0 ' 0 "N, 50 ° 0' 0" E
The Rub 'al Khali (Arabic الربع الخالي ar Rub ʿ al - Khali, DMG ar - Rub ʿ al - Hali, Empty Quarter '), also Rub al -Khali ( English transcription ), is the largest sand desert in the world. The nearly deserted desert covers the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. She is - similar to the Sahara - by the trade winds caused a turning circle desert.
Geography
It covers an area of around 780,000 square kilometers of Najd in the north, where the Nefud desert followed until after Hadramaut in Yemen in the south and to the United Arab Emirates in the northeast. To the south is the Rub al Khali through the areas that are like the Dhofar region (Oman ) under the influence of the monsoon climate limited.
The desert consists largely of sand dunes, which can be up to 300 meters high. They extend over an area of 500,000 km ². Many of the emerging on the Arabian Peninsula dry riverbeds ( wadis ) seep into the dry Rub al Khali.
In the north of the desert, the great Liwa Oasis, where a spur road to Moreeb dune leads, which is considered the highest in the Rub al Khali is. Due to their very steep rise angle of around 50 degrees, it is preferably used for specific desert racing.
To the east are the Wabar crater, three caused by Meteorite impact craters with diameters ranging from eleven to 116 meters.
Research
The first expedition through the Rub al Khali Bertram Thomas succeeded to the British in 1930/31 on a relatively simple route. In 1932, he was followed by his countryman St. John Philby and crossed the western part of the desert on its 3000 km long tour. A complete traversal succeeded in 1946 to the current as an eccentric British explorer Wilfred Thesiger. This was granted by a locust invasion during the Second World War by King Ibn Saud permission to search for the breeding sites of insects in the southern part of the Rub al Khali.
From 25 February to 9 March 2006, the state organization " Saudi Geological Survey " (SGS ) burdensome research trip in the desert through.
Climate and vegetation
The rainfall is less than 50 mm per year, which is why the desert is classified as hyperarid. The temperatures of the tropic desert can fluctuate during the day from freezing at night to 60 ° C. Despite the harsh conditions, the sandy desert its own ecosystem dar. Thus, in the entire desert spiders, rodents and some, albeit few, plant species are encountered.
People
The Rub al Khali is largely unexplored, with the exception of remote sensing from space using satellites. She is still one of the most inaccessible areas of the world. The Bedouin avoid the desert and operate only at the edges of their desert with camels grazing.
Until 300 AD incense caravans traveled through the desert. Desertification took in the last millennia, made this trade Tourism impossible, leaving the once wealthy trading city of Ubar sink into the sand.