Lugares de interés (POIs) del Mapa
0: Chains of Star Dunes, Near the Omani Border
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Chains of Star Dunes, Omani BorderAerial view of chains of star dunes near Omani border with three cars trying to ‘vein’ dunes are formed by strong winds, primarily from the ESE, which blow orange-colored sand into long ridges across the salt flats or subkha. Here the Uruq dunes take the form of a chain of individual star dunes, a rare and poorly understood phenomenon. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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1: Salt Flat with Barchan Dunes
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Salt Flat with Barchan DunesSalt flat with crescent-shaped barchan dunes marching across its basin. The orange color of the dunes is due to oxidation of iron minerals in the sand. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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2: Refinery, Shaybah Oil Field, Saudi Arabia
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Refinery, Shaybah Oil Field, Saudi ArabiaRefinery at the beginning of the pipeline from Shaybah Oil Field to the Persian Gulf. Here crude oil from wells is degassed before entering the pipeline to Abqaiq, some 600 km away. This is one of the newest and most remote oil fields in Saudi Arabia. It produces 550,000 barrels of oil per day. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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3: Residential Complex for Oilfield Workers, Shaybah, Saudi Arabia
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Residential Complex for Oilfield Workers, Shaybah, Saudi ArabiaLooking like a resort complex in Arizona, Saudi Aramco has created a small city for its oilfield workers in the middle of the Shaybah dune field. Behind the residential complex is an paved airfield with daily jet service to Aramco headquarters in Dhahran. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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4: Irrigation Circles, Wadi Dawasir, Saudi Arabia
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Irrigation Circles, Wadi Dawasir, Saudi ArabiaCenter-pivot irrigation circles growing alfalfa (animal fodder) reach to the horizon near Wadi Dawasir at the edge of the Empty Quarter. Each crop circle is about 1Km in diameter and sprays water and fertilizer onto barren land to make it bloom. Irrigation water comes from wells 100-200M deep and is “fossil water” that fell as rain thousands of years ago. Wells here start as artesian flow with high sulfur content, but soon has to be pumped to the surface. After some twenty years, the water drops to a level that is no longer economic and the fields are abandoned. Crops are only viable here for four months a year, but fields need to be irrigated year-round to stop salt from building up on the surface. The fields need 10,000 cuM water/hectare each year. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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5: City and Cemetery, Al Faw, Saudi Arabia
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City and Cemetery, Al Faw, Saudi ArabiaAerial view of the city of Al Faw with cemetery behind. Al Faw was once an important crossroads for frankincense that moved along the edge of the Empty Quarter by camel caravan. Here, the route from the south diverged northeast to the Persian Gulf and northwest to Palestine. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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6: Automobile in the Sharoorah Dunes, Saudi Arabia
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Automobile in the Sharoorah Dunes, Saudi ArabiaAutomobile in the Sharoorah dunes at sunrise. The Saudi government built a military post at Sharoorah, on the southernmost edge of the Empty Quarter in an effort to secure a disputed border with Yemen. 400km from the nearest permanent settlement, Sharoorah was connected to the rest of the kingdom by a two-lane asphalt road which maintenance crews keep free of sand. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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7: Star Dunes, Ramlat Fasad, Oman
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Star Dunes, Ramlat Fasad, OmanStar dunes in Ramlat Fasad, where Wadi Shihan sinks in to the sands of Omani Empty Quarter. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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8: Dot Dunes, Wadi Hazar, Yemen
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Dot Dunes, Wadi Hazar, YemenUnusual pattern of dot-shaped dunes spread across the plain of Wadi Hazar in the Yemeni part of the Empty Quarter. It appears as if a change in wind direction has blown the crescent tails off of a field of barchan dunes. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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9: Camel Herd, Wadi Mitan, Oman
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Camel Herd, Wadi Mitan, OmanVertical view of a herd of camels cross the sandy gravels of the Empty Quarter on their way to graze near Wadi Mitan in western Oman. Many of the females having bra-like coverings over their udders to keep their young from nursing until they have returned to camp for milking. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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10: Oil Exploration Dirt Track, Umm as Samin, Oman
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Oil Exploration Dirt Track, Umm as Samin, OmanExpedition car at dusk on the new dirt track built for oil exploration teams to cross the Umm as Samim (Mother of Poisons) in Oman. The Umm as Samim is the lowest point in the Empty Quarter, and its thin hard surface disguises slippery salty muds underneath. It is passable in the dry season if there hasn't been much rain, but otherwise its a treacherous expanse of real quick sand. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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11: Ancient Irrigation, Sabwah, Yemen
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Ancient Irrigation, Sabwah, YemenTwo thousand year old patterns of irrigation are still well preserved at Shabwah, Yemen, a testament of how little rain falls near this abandoned city, once one of the most important centers in southern Arabia. At its peak it had several thousand hectares under cultivation via an elaborate irrigation system that controlled water from flash floods in distant mountains. It was also a major stopping point for caravans of camels carrying frankincense from Oman to the Mediterranean. Now the city is largely abandoned and the fields fallow. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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12: Shibam, Yemen
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Shibam, YemenShibam, the ancient trading capital of the Yemeni part of the Empty Quarter, has been described as the Manhattan of Arabia. It was declared a World Heritage site by the United Nations. Its tower homes are constructed entirely from the traditional materials of mud and palm wood, with a thin skin of plaster made from locally baked limestone. The city is a living monument to medieval ingenuity. At its center is a mosque. The city was a central point on the frankincense trade route that brought the prized dried tree-sap from the mountains of Oman to the Mediterranean by camel caravan until 300 A.D.. The closeness of the buildings keeps the streets and exterior walls cool and shaded for most of the day, and its high exterior wall and labyrinth of streets overlooked by tall buildings provided safety against conquerors. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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13: The Sanctuary of Bilqis, Marib, Yemen
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The Sanctuary of Bilqis, Marib, YemenOutside the town of Marib, stone pillars and other remnants of the Sanctuary of Bilqis offer clues to a powerful kingdom that may have been ruled by the legendary Queen of Sheba mentioned in both the Koran and Bible. Marib was once one of the richest towns of Arabia, and a center for the Sabaeans who controled the region and built a dam to harness seasonal rains into year-round agriculture in the 8th century BC. Marib was also an important stop on the frankincense route from Oman to the Mediterranean. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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14: Agriculture Fields, Wadi Hadramaut, Yemen
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Agriculture Fields, Wadi Hadramaut, YemenAgriculture fields between Shibam and Sayun in Wadi Hadramaut, Yemen. The multistory buildings in Wadi Hadramaut are made with only mud an palm wood, with an exterior coating of plaster to prevent damage during monsoon rains. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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15: Fort of Jabbanah, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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Fort of Jabbanah, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesFort of Jabbanah, near the town of Jarrah in Liwas Oasis. The fort was recently restored, but was used as a stronghold/refuge by local farmers from attack by marauders coming across the Empty Quarter from Saudi Arabia before the middle of the 20th century. Liwa is an ancient chain of palm gardens that tap into water from an chain of paleo lakes that once filled this shallow depression on the northern edge of the Empty Quarter, the world's largest sand sea. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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16: Rheem Gazelle, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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Rheem Gazelle, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesHerd of rheem gazelle (sand gazelle) that were re-established near Umm az-Zamul some twenty years ago. Their population has increased as they can now feed and water themselves at stations set up by the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency. Orange dunes here line up in east - west rows over the ancient dry lake bed of Umm az-Zamul in the south east corner of the UAE. It's very unusual to find dunes with a different color from the underlying ground, but the orange color is from oxidation of the iron minerals in the sand and the white is from the dolomitic limestone of the paleo lake bottom (this is a low point for the area, and the white salt flats still fill with water after the rare rainfall. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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17: Barchan Dunes near Shaybah, Saudi Arabia
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Barchan Dunes near Shaybah, Saudi ArabiaComplex barchan dunes take on the shape of a giant egg crate near the Saudi oilfield of Shaybah. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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18: Abandoned nuclear weather station, Ubaylah
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Abandoned nuclear weather station, UbaylahAbandoned nuclear weather station at Ubaylah. It was set up in the 1970’s and then abandoned without being decommissioned. Its existence is politically sensitive, but largely forgotten. The spray-painted signs on the outside say "entry forbidden because of radiation," "staying here puts you in danger," "don't go in for your own safety." The building once had a locked steel door, which the Bedouin apparently took off its hinges and carted away for their own use. The desert way is to claim anything that appears to be abandoned in the desert as yours. The reactor is supposedly a Cobalt-60 source for powering the weather instruments, which of course are long since carted away by the Bedouin. The information I have on this is all hear-say ... but an employee of the US Geological Survey who visited the site noted his geiger counter went off the scale as he approached the building and said: "All I am certain of is that the black object there is radioactive as all hell," but had no idea what these abandoned instruments might be. I spent about twenty minutes inside taking photos and still have all my hair. | |
| ©2009 George Steinmetz | Empty Quarter |
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