Ar-Rub' al-Ḫālī

The southern edge of the Rub al-Khali stretches toward the plateau north of Hadramawt. This immense sea of sand covers much of southern Arabia, with dunes and flatter spaces between them forming a landscape of shifting contours. The plateau slopes gently northward toward the desert, away from the deeply cut valleys of Hadramawt. Here the arid country of the interior gives way to the great sand wastes known as the Empty Quarter.