Empty Quarter  (Extracted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) 

(From the website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_Quarter) 

This article concerns the desert area Rub' al Khali of the Arabian Peninsula.

Empty Quarter (Arabic: Rub' al Khali الربع الخالي), is the largest sand desert in the world, encompassing the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including southern Saudi Arabia, and areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. 

Still largely unexplored, and virtually uninhabited, the desert is a thousand kilometers (600 miles) long, and 500 km (300 miles) wide. Even the Beduins only skirt the edges of the desert. Nonetheless, tour companies do exist that offer GPS-equipped excursions into the desert. The first documented journeys made by Westerners to the Empty Quarter were those made by Bertram Thomas in 1931 and in 1932. 

With summer temperatures ranging from below freezing at night to over 60° Celsius (140° F) at noon, and dunes taller than the Eiffel Tower - over 330 meters (1000 ft) - the desert may be the most forbidding environment on Earth. However, as nearly everwhere else, life flourishes. Arachnids, rodents and plant life can all be found throughout the Empty Quarter. As an eco-region, it falls within the . 

Desertification has increased through the millennia. Before desertification made the trails leading across the Rub' al Khali so difficult, the caravans of the frankincense trade crossed now virtually impassable stretches of wasteland, until about 300 AD. See for example the lost city of Ubar, which depended on such trade. 

Geologically, the Empty Quarter is one of the most oil-rich places in the world. Vast oil reserves have been discovered underneath the sand stacks. Sheyba, in the middle of the desert, is a major Arab light crude oil-producing site in Saudi Arabia. Also, Ghawwar Field, the largest oil field in the world, extends southward into the northernmost parts of the Empty Quarter. 

For a virtual tour of the Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter):

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0502/sights_n_sounds/media2.html  

With thanks to  Trevor "Bill" Powell for this contribution
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