Rubʿ al-Khali  Rubʿ al-Khali, ( Arabic: “Empty Quarter”) also
spelled Al-Rabʿ al-KhaliEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.The Rubʿ
al-Khali sand desert, most of which lies within Saudi
Arabia.Lynn Abercrombievast desert in the southern Arabian
Peninsula, covering about 250,000 square miles (650,000 square
km) in a structural basin lying mainly in southeastern Saudi
Arabia, with lesser portions in Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab
Emirates. It is the largest area of continuous sand in the
world. It occupies more than one-quarter of Saudi Arabia. The
topography is varied. In the west the elevation is as high as
2,000 feet (610 metres) and the sand is fine and soft, while in
the east the elevation drops to 600 feet (183 metres) with sand
dunes, salt flats, and sand sheets. One of the driest regions in
the world, it is virtually uninhabited and largely unexplored.
However, in 1948 Al-Ghawār, the world’s largest oilfield, was
discovered there. For convenience, several townlike names were
given to different locations along