‘Uruq Bani Ma’arid
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- October–April
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The Empty Quarter — Ar Rub' al-Khali, the greatest stretch of windblown sand on Earth — meets a limestone plateau at 'Uruq Bani Ma'arid, on the desert's western edge. Arabian oryx roam here again after decades of being extinct in the wild, alongside reintroduced sand gazelles, sand-diving reptiles in the mobile dunes and relict plants clinging to incised wadis. Bedu herders have crossed the area for generations. In 2023 it became Saudi Arabia's first natural UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Wanderers' notes