Vegetation of the Sands

Abstract

The 19th Century citizens of al Washm, central Arabia, were nearly right of course. It is indeed possible to travel from the northern fringe of the Great Nafud to within 200 kilometres of the Yemeni capital without ever stepping outside Arabia’s linked sand seas. Including the southernmost outlier, Ramlat as Sab’atayn, they extend over 15 degrees of latitude, have a total surface area of 795,000 km2 (Wilson 1973) and account for nearly a third of the Peninsula’s land area.