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The Arabian World Desert is set in the lost world of the southern Arabian mountains – an unknown world of remote fog wrapped mountains, the habitat of the Arabian leopard and the land of frankincense.
Your personal exploration starts in the sand dunes of the lowlands, where the mysterious Empty Quarter runs up against the mountains of Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Passing an oasis, you may well encounter Fennec foxes beside the trail.
You then cross a bridge to stand beside a small canyon with a long pool of water at the bottom. Entering the densely wooded mountain refuge, you can see a spectacular herd of Nubian ibex and a noisy troupe of Hamadryas baboons. Prowling among the rocks and trees is the caracal, a lithe wild cat that pounces on birds and gazelles. This is also the habitat of the largest predator in Arabia – and one of the world's most endangered felines – the Arabian leopard. You might spot one beside the stream, or resting in the shade of a tree in shallow rock pockets.
The humidity of the mountain canyon allows exotic seasonal blooms like desert roses and aloe to flourish, and you'll see rock faces encrusted with ferns where the streams rush over them. This is not the Arabia you expect! This is the land of the frankincense tree, whose precious, highly aromatic gum has been collected in the mountains of Arabia and exported to the rest of the world for thousands of years.
As this part of Arabia is close to the Horn of Africa, the trees are often closely related to African varieties, and African wildlife species like the Striped hyena and Honey badger feed in these enclaves. In the aviary, African species such as Abdim’s stork mix with Arabian endemics such as the highly endangered Northern bald ibis or migrants like the Houbara bustard which transit between Central Asia and Arabia.
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