Aš-Šamli Corridor

The Ash-Shamli corridor crosses the Nafud in northern Arabia, beginning near Tayma and continuing east amid red sand. Crescent dunes shaped by sudden winds alternate with rocky edges and lower hollows. Rain comes only once or twice in an ordinary year, and travel depends on wells, shade and remembered passages through the erg.

Oases near the Hejaz support dates, barley, vegetables and fruit. These cultivated islands supply herders and caravans crossing between the Red Sea interior, the Al-Jawf country and the settlements of central Arabia. Camel pastoralists move with sparse vegetation after rain, while routes avoid the most mobile dune crests.

The corridor forms part of a longer chain linking the Nafud with the Dahna and the Rub al Khali. Its significance lies in the way dunes, gravel plains and watered hollows create a passage across northern Arabia. Control of wells and safe stages, rather than continuous settlement, made the route useful.