UBAR CITY IN THE SANDS Sand sand and more sand The Rub al-Khali Arabic for the Empty Quarter is the largest area of uninterrupted sand in the world It covers much of the southern Arabian Peninsula with wind-blown dunes rising almost 1,000 feet 300 meters high It is fiercely hot very dry and virtually uninhabited FRANKINCENSE Frankincense is a resin similar to gum that comes from the trunks of the Boswellia trees that grow in southern Arabia Since ancient times it has been highly prized for its delicious smell when it is burned and for its use in medicines
THE ANCIENT PEOPLE OF AD Tales of a fabulous city that had long-since disappeared beneath the sands of the Rub al-Khali have been passed down for centuries References to such a city appear in the holy book of Islam the Qur’an The nomadic people of the deserts the Bedouin also have many stories about an ancient trading city inhabited by the people of Ad According to these tales the city was famed for its trade in frankincense but its people became arrogant and were punished when the city suffered a terrible calamity and was destroyed NOW THE AD BEHAVED ARROGANTLY THROUGH THE LAND AGAINST ALL TRUTH AND REASON AND SAID WHO IS SUPERIOR TO US IN STRENGTH HOW THE PEOPLE OF AD ARE DESCRIBED IN THE QUR’AN DANGEROUS LANDS The tales of the lost city in the sands fascinated explorers But a trip into the Rub al-Khali was not to be undertaken lightly The desert covers an area about the size of Texas and has extremes of temperature ranging from over 122 degrees Fahrenheit 50 degrees Celsius during the day to below freezing at night With few sources of water this wasn’t a good place to get lost
Harry St John Philby was a fluent Arabic speaker and wore Bedouin clothes In 1932 he crossed the Rub al-Khali of Arabia
RACE ACROSS THE SANDS In 1931 a British explorer named Bertram Thomas became the first European to make the journey across the Rub al-Khali In doing so he beat his fellow-explorer and friend Harry St John Philby who had hoped and planned to be the first to cross the desert sands Once Philby had recovered from his disappointment he resolved to go anyway In fact Philby wanted to do more than just cross the Rub al Khali He wanted to look for the city the Bedouins had told him about a city called Ubar
