The Arabian Rub al-Khali Desert – also known as the Empty Quarter or, simply, the largest sand desert on Earth. What is it that makes the landscape so fascinating and enthralling?

Is it its accessibility, its unique shapes, colours, smells and sounds? Or perhaps an exotic combination of all this and more? Perhaps even single features in the landscape are so distinctive that you just can’t help being amazed? But what impressed me most during my short stay in this region where the borders of Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia meet was:

The absolute silence! - Day was like night.

No insects buzzing, no brakes squealing, no car horns blaring, no leaves rustling, no trees whispering, no birds chirping, no dogs barking, no sheep bleating, no thunderstorms, no rain, no kids screaming, no police sirens, no aircraft noise, no church bells ringing or muezzin calling from the minaret. Nothing – absolutely nothing.

absolute Nothing? - and Yet -

You yourself are a source of noise in this environment: every movement of your body, every rustle of your clothes, every step through the sand; your breath, your voice when you speak to yourself, your heartbeat. And if you climb any of these 80 to 100 metre high dunes at night or in the early morning and stand at the top, gazing out over the sacred sea of sand before you, you will make a fascinating discovery.

You will hear the creator of this landscape, hear what has formed all these fascinating structures and goes on creating them over and over again.

it is the soft wind.

Quietly it blows around your ears and gradually creates this magnificent world. It blows the dust, blows the sand, moving it forward, pushing it up, blowing it down. Endlessly it forms, destroys and uncovers. Day after day, for countless thousands of years.

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