As part of Saudi Arabia’s much-anticipated Riyadh Season, Dunes of Arabia is taking place in the desert. It is a four-month, family event that showcases and celebrates the country’s past nomadic Bedouin lifestyle.
There are all manner of activities to take part in, all paying homage to the diversity of the kingdom’s desert, from falconry to dune bashing and sandboarding to horse riding.
About 30 per cent of the land in Saudi Arabia is covered in desert and the kingdom is famous for its dramatic dunes, sand valleys and rugged landscapes, from the reddish terrain of Ad Dahna Desert to Rub’ Al Khali, also known as the Empty Quarter.
Camel trekking, desert camping and stargazing in the ancient city of AlUla, in the northwest, are popular tourist activities, as is hiking through Red Sands near Riyadh or going on an off-road trip around historical Najd, the country’s central region where about one-third of today’s population resides.
One of the kingdom’s most stunning desert attractions is known as the Edge of the World, within the Tuwaik mountain range, also near the capital city. It’s a 1,131-metre cliff that travellers can climb to experience what are arguably the most spectacular views in the country.
This page was produced by The National in partnership with Saudi Tourism Authority.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The biog
Full name: Aisha Abdulqader Saeed
Age: 34
Emirate: Dubai
Favourite quote: "No one has ever become poor by giving"
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
