The name “Arabian Desert” can be misleading since there are two deserts that have been called by that name: the Eastern Desert and the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Eastern Desert is located in Egypt between the Nile River and the Red Sea continuing south into Sudan. It covers about 85,900 square miles. The reason for the naming is lost to history, but it is believed that it was named the “Arabian Desert” either because of its closeness to Arabia or because it was the original home of the first Arab nomads in Egypt.
The desert is very mountainous with many peaks over 6,000 feet high. Except for the area around the Red Sea the desert is barren and inhospitable with annual rainfall of less than four inches. The quarries of the Eastern Desert were a source of building materials for ancient Egyptians. The Eastern Desert is currently home to three nomadic tribes, the Maaza, the Ababda, and the Bisharin, who live by trading or herding goats and sheep.
The name, Arabian Desert, has also been applied to the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. This third-largest desert in the world covers about 900,000 square miles and includes Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter). Desert coverage includes southern Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The Rub’ al Khali has additionally been called the Great Sandy Desert (not to be confused with the Great Sandy Desert in Australia). Rub’ al Khali is one of the largest, most inhospitable and uninhabitable sand deserts in the world covering over 250,000 square miles. Summer temperatures can reach 131 degrees and sand dunes can top 1,000 feet high. The area is so inhospitable that it was not until 1931 that the first documented, non-Arab, crossing was made.
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