Markus Zaiser
Empty Quarter
Mamiya7II, 43mm, Agfa Scala, yellow filter
The Rub' al Khali (Arabic: الربع الخالي), which translates as Empty Quarter in English, 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 kilometres (250,000 sq mi) (the area between long. 44°30′ −56°30′E., and lat. 16°30′ −23°00′N), more than the combined land areas of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
The desert is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long, and 500 kilometres (310 mi) wide, and is neither inhabited nor traversed by the Bedouins. After Pedro Páez's presence in the late Sixteenth Century, the first documented journeys by Westerners were made by Bertram Thomas in 1931 and St. John Philby in 1932. Between 1946 and 1950 Wilfred Thesiger crossed the area several times and mapped large parts including the mountains of Oman.
Summer temperatures of nearly 55 °C (131 °F) and dunes over 330 metres (1,100 ft) make Rub' al Kali one of the most forbidding environments on Earth. Fauna includes arachnids and rodents while plants live throughout the Empty Quarter. As an ecoregion, it falls within the Arabian Desert and East Saharo-Arabian xeric shrublands.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub'_al_Khali
Empty Quarter
Mamiya7II, 43mm, Agfa Scala, yellow filter
The Rub' al Khali (Arabic: الربع الخالي), which translates as Empty Quarter in English, 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 kilometres (250,000 sq mi) (the area between long. 44°30′ −56°30′E., and lat. 16°30′ −23°00′N), more than the combined land areas of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
The desert is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long, and 500 kilometres (310 mi) wide, and is neither inhabited nor traversed by the Bedouins. After Pedro Páez's presence in the late Sixteenth Century, the first documented journeys by Westerners were made by Bertram Thomas in 1931 and St. John Philby in 1932. Between 1946 and 1950 Wilfred Thesiger crossed the area several times and mapped large parts including the mountains of Oman.
Summer temperatures of nearly 55 °C (131 °F) and dunes over 330 metres (1,100 ft) make Rub' al Kali one of the most forbidding environments on Earth. Fauna includes arachnids and rodents while plants live throughout the Empty Quarter. As an ecoregion, it falls within the Arabian Desert and East Saharo-Arabian xeric shrublands.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub'_al_Khali