- Desert geography
- The natural world of Big Nefud
- Cinema and the Big Nefud Desert
Several regions on planet Earth are characterized by a dry and hot climate, no precipitation at all or very little of it. Such territories, uniting several deserts, can be found at once in Australia, South America and the Middle East. The Big Nefud Desert is one of the company of deserts that occupied almost the entire Arabian Peninsula.
Desert geography
There is also a second name - En-Nafud-el-Kebir, which says all the same, the main features of the climate and relief. Geographically, the desert is located on the Arabian Peninsula, occupying its northern part.
The political map shows that the territories belong to Saudi Arabia. In shape, it approaches a rectangle, the length of which is 290 kilometers, respectively, the width is 225 kilometers. Scientists estimate that its total area is close to 105 thousand square kilometers.
Actually, it is not clear how scientists manage to determine the width, length and total area, especially for such deserts, with such neighbors. The Big Nefud Desert smoothly merges into the Rub al-Khali Desert, then into the Small Nefud, in connection with which the shape changes, since a corridor consisting of sand dunes passes through these three regions. Its width ranges from 24 (minimum) kilometers to a maximum of 80 kilometers, while the length of this natural "corridor" is 1300 kilometers.
There are other data regarding the Big Nefud Desert, for example, that its average height is 600 meters above sea level. In some places, there are massifs and individual island mountains, the height of these geographical objects reaches 1000 meters.
The vast territories of the Big Nefud Desert are occupied by moving sands, dunes, as well as ridge sands and rocky spaces between them, called hamads. The bulk of the sand was formed as a result of the weathering of chalk sandstones. Big Nefud is one of the most beautiful deserts in the world, its characteristic feature is the changing color of the sand. In the morning hours, the color of the desert surface resembles Martian landscapes, since the sand has a reddish tint. At noon, when the sun is at its zenith, the color of the sand turns dazzling white.
The natural world of Big Nefud
Biologists note that the Arabian deserts are characterized by a poor species diversity of representatives of both the kingdom of flora and the kingdom of fauna. The fauna is represented by the proper Arabian and Saharo-Arabian species. The following mammals are most widespread in the Bolshoi Nefud Desert: royal gerbil; black-tailed gerbil; Arabian oryx; Arabian tar.
The most widespread are gerbils, as animal species that adapt best to the harsh conditions of the desert, lack of precipitation, and sudden changes in temperature. Other small animals adjoin them, for example, a grass mouse. Its habitat is North Africa, it is believed that man contributed to the travel of the mouse to the Arabian Peninsula.
The aforementioned Arabian oryx is an antelope, rather large, it withstands the climate of the desert well, can go without drinking for a long time, and feeds on plants. The world of avifauna in the Bolshoi Nefud Desert is represented by various species of "peaceful" birds and predators. Their first group can be noted the desert sparrow, the crested and desert lark, the desert warbler. Their birds of prey that have chosen this region to live are called the golden eagle.
The world of reptiles and insects is even more diverse in Big Nefud; these representatives of the kingdom of the desert fauna are considered the most adapted to life in a dry climate. Most often you can see (especially at night) snakes and lizards of various shapes and colors.
Desert ants, relatives of locusts, and golden beetles lead the daytime lifestyle. With the onset of darkness, other representatives of the insect world appear, including night ground beetles, darkling beetles, scoops, tarantulas.
Cinema and the Big Nefud Desert
Few deserts in the world are honored to be filmed in a feature film, in this regard, Big Nefud is incredibly lucky. Lawrence of Arabia is based on the autobiographical story of Lawrence, a former British intelligence officer who fought alongside the Arabs in the guerrilla war against the Ottoman yoke.
According to the plot of the film, which won a huge number of "Oscars" (seven), a small detachment led by Lawrence crosses the Nefud desert, practically waterless, in order to attack the city of Aqaba from land, and not from the sea, as the enemy expects. In the film, you can see many beautiful desert landscapes, try to experience the deadly beauty of the desert.
