This desert contains brackish salt flats in the Umm al Samim region and featured a high concentration of shallow lakes from about 10,000 to 5000 years ago.
This desert contains brackish salt flats in the Umm al Samim region and featured a high concentration of shallow lakes from about 10,000 to 5000 years ago. It has seen its fair share of British explorers, including Bertram Thomas who was the first European to cross it, and Ranulph Fiennes who discovered the lost city of (*) Iram here. Caravans used to cross this desert, but stopped around 300 AD. due to increasing desertification which disrupted the ► frankincense trade that had traversed it for centuries. More recently, the oil field of Shaybah was opened on its northern edge by Aramco in the 1990s. For 10 points, name this sand desert of the Arabian Peninsula also known as the Empty Quarter.
This desert contains brackish salt flats in the Umm al Samim region and featured a high concentration of shallow lakes from about 10,000 to 5000 years ago.
Rub al-Khali (prompt on "Empty Quarter" before it is mentioned)