Arabian Desert

Arabian Desert or Eastern Desert, arid region, eastern Egypt, lying between the Mediterranean Sea on the north, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez on the east, the Nubian Desert (along latitude 22° N) on the south, and the Nile River on the west. The western edge of the desert is demarcated by cliffs that rise steeply from the Nile Valley. To the east the terrain, mostly a rugged plateau, slopes upward to a range of jagged volcanic mountains bordering the Red Sea. Elevations in the range, which descends abruptly to the sea, exceed 2,100 m (7,000 ft). Aridity makes human habitation difficult, but a few small agricultural villages subsist in little basins in the plateau and mountains. Deposits of turquoise, phosphate rock, nitrates, petroleum, salt, and building stone are here, but are of limited economic significance.

The name Arabian Desert is also applied popularly to the Rub‘ al Khali (Empty Quarter), also called the Great Sandy Desert, of the Arabian Peninsula, one of the hottest and most sparsely inhabited sand dune deserts of the world.