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It might not have occurred to you to wonder which of the world's deserts is the sandiest, but it happens to be the Arabian desert. Not a single river flows through it or originates from it. The desert is characterised and moulded by the bullying Shamal winds that sweep across the sands, pushing them into mountainous dunes up to 200 metres tall.
In this uniquely arid expanse, an area known as the Rub’ al-Khali is even drier than other parts. Officially classified as ‘hyper-arid’, it can see entire years go by without a solitary drop of rain and, unlike other desert regions, overnight precipitation simply never happens here.
Yet, amazingly, even though it is one of the planet’s harshest environments, it is home to scattered herds of oryx and gazelle, and occasionally camels. In wadis and gullies, scattered trees provide the animals with welcome shade. These trees include the al ban tree (moringa peregrina), umbrella thorn acacias (acacia tortilis and ehrengergiana) and even the caper bush (capparis spinosa), whose small, sharp tasting, pea shaped fruits find their way into sophisticated dinner menus in the Western world.
On the Arabian Wildlife Safari you will travel – in comfort – across a perfectly re-created, undulating sea of golden sand dunes, dotted with trees and populated with spry Arabian oryxes and exquisite Sand gazelles.
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