Which desert covers most of the Arabian Peninsula?

The desert that covers most of the Arabian Peninsula is the Arabian Desert. This vast arid region occupies roughly 2.33 million square kilometres across West Asia, extending from Yemen and Oman toward the Persian Gulf, Jordan, Iraq, and the Levant.

Saudi Arabia contains most of the desert, but the region crosses several modern borders. Its best-known subregion is the Rub’ al-Khali, or “Empty Quarter,” one of the world’s largest continuous sand seas. Other major landscapes include the An-Nafud in the north and the Ad-Dahna, a belt of sand that links the northern and southern deserts.

The Arabian Desert is not simply an endless field of dunes. It includes gravel plains, rocky plateaus, salt flats, escarpments, and isolated sand seas. Orange, purple, and red tones appear in some dunes because iron-oxide-coated grains mix with quartz and feldspar.

A frequent mix-up is the Sahara, which lies mainly in North Africa. Climatically and geologically, however, the Arabian Desert can be viewed as part of a broader desert belt connected to the Sahara through the Sinai and Middle Eastern regions.