Talk:Rub' al Khali

Merge two articles
There is this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%27_al_Khali ...and this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empty_Quarter

Shouldn't they be merged together? I'm unsure how to properly do so. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anskrev (talk • contribs) 08:41, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Larger
Then the Rub' al Khali is larger than the Sahara? Wetman 04:30, 12 Jan 2004 (UTC)

I think the Rub' al Khali is the largest sand desert in the world. The Sahara isn't exclusively sand; at least parts of it are wet and fertile enough to support large animal life. The Empty Quarter is completely uninhabitable, hence its name. --MIRV (talk) 04:36, 12 Jan 2004 (UTC)

The article says that the Empty Quarter has life are you refering to HUMAN LIFE? Either way the claim t be the largest is spurrious at best4.142.78.191 04:26, 1 September 2007 (UTC)eric

The Sahara is not a sand desert (and neither the largest desert on earth, since the Antarctic desert is larger). Large parts of it are rock/stone. Hence the Rub' al Khali is the largest sand desert. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.120.181.210 (talk) 15:39, 24 February 2015 (UTC)


 * so Antarctica is sand desert? KaderRocket (talk) 20:43, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Borders
Since it's empty, the borders between Yemen/Oman and Saudi Arabia are kind of shady (dotted in a lot of atlases, although it's not exactly "disputed" because nobody lives there) - should this be mentioned in the article? – ugen64 05:04, 5 January 2006 (UTC)


 * The borders have been officially defined a few years ago. - Eagleamn 06:35, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Definition
The article merely says it is one of the largest sand deserts in the world. Should it say that it is the largest sand desert in the world?

Article name
I've always thought the desert was known as the Rub' al Khali, even in English. Shouldn't this then be the main title for this article? I've never heard anyone actually refer to it as the Empty Quarter (which sounds pretty stupid anyway). Unless I hear any good arguments otherwise, in a couple of days I'll rename it.--Osprey39 02:00, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I second that. --Klaus Bertow 22:44, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I disagree. I've always seen it as Empty quarter in English and never as the actual Arabic "Rub' al Khali." This is in contrast to the common use of "Maghreb" in English. &mdash; ዮም  |  (Yom)  |  Talk  • contribs • Ethiopia 22:23, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

What is the Wikipedia practice for transliterating the Arabic sounds hamza and ‘ayn? Is a straight apostrophe (') used for both? If not, the name of this article should have ‘, which is the conventional symbol for ‘ayn (but not hamza). Also, I thought Arabic words prefixed with al had a hyphen after the al in transliteration.

(Also, the pronunciation should preferably be given in IPA. Note that the ‘ayn is pronounced, and the a is long. But I'm not qualified to make a good transcription myself. 71.82.211.210 (talk) 05:35, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Hyperbole
"With summer temperatures up to nearly 55 °C (131 °F) at noon, and dunes taller than the Eiffel Tower — over 330 metres (1,100 ft) — the desert may be the most forbidding environment on Earth." - Clearly an exaggeration. Much more forbidding environment exists in the Antarctic, for example. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.36.6.41 (talk) 19:41, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Travel guide
No subsections, lots of exagerations and vauge terms ("Largely unexplored until recently", "dunes taller than the Eiffel Tower—over 330 metres (1,100 ft)—the desert may be the most forbidding environment on Earth"). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Theriddle (talk • contribs) 03:22, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Size
The two sentences "The desert covers some 650000 km2" and "The desert is 1000 km long, and 500 km wide" are incongruous. If we say that it is at most 1000 km &times; 500 km in size, then the maximum area would be 500000 km2. So something isn't quite right there.  howcheng  {chat} 09:13, 21 August 2010 (UTC)


 * ladies, pls review size issue in that it seems easily clear to anyone that the sahara "sand" desert is like 3-10x larger

and makes this desert seem small ... and also, don jay claims his Scotland golf course has the largest 'dunes' in the world 24.146.191.73 (talk) 03:25, 1 August 2017 (UTC) willywonker, jr

File:Rub' al Khali (Arabian Empty Quarter) sand dunes imaged by Terra (EOS AM-1).jpg to appear as POTD soon
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Rub' al Khali (Arabian Empty Quarter) sand dunes imaged by Terra (EOS AM-1).jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on August 22, 2010. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2010-08-22. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks!  howcheng  {chat} 09:19, 21 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Alas e.g., distance between dunes above is not available to readers of . even upon clicking "More details". Jidanni (talk) 21:16, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

Altitude
Should there be any reference to its elevaton from the sea level? Some areas in Empty QUarter is way below see level. I don't have any source now to support this 86.96.226.84 (talk) 11:34, 22 August 2010 (UTC)Nemo


 * I added information from the WWF about its general elevation. I don't know if any areas are actually below sea level.  Augurar (talk) 22:27, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

History
"Desertification has increased through the millennia. Before desertification made the caravan trails leading across the Rub' al Khali so difficult, the caravans of the frankincense trade crossed now virtually impassable stretches of wasteland, until about AD 300"

What is being communicated here? The sentence above does not make sense and reads like it was written by someone who spoke very poor English. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.151.219.61 (talk) 18:44, 6 February 2015 (UTC)
 * FWIW, I'm a native BrE speaker and former science textbook editor: to me the passage makes perfect sense and is well written. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 10:46, 11 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Not according to the Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score. Cut and paste into here. DeCausa (talk) 11:57, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Fiction area
Is it really necessary for the article to add so many popular culture trivia? most of these don't seem to reflect on any way on the desert


 * Agreed not, but perhaps worth retaining a few historic ones in narrative form? SovalValtos (talk) 05:15, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Rank
Regarding:


 * ... is the largest continuous sand desert (erg) in the world ...

This seems to contradict Is Rub' al Khali the largest sand desert in the world?

--Mortense (talk) 13:52, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

Mars reference
There’s an image of a landscape on Mars, which NASA called "Rub al Khali," taken by the rover Opportunity some time around mid-2005: https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/5874/opportunitys-rub-al-khali-panorama/

Thought this might be worth mentioning in the article. Not sure where to best put it, though. A separate section just for this additional information doesn’t seem worthy, nor does it seamlessly fit under any of the existing sections. Any thoughts about simply adding a sentence at the end of the intro before the description section? Ikerus (talk) 10:38, 23 July 2020 (UTC)