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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
East of the Hijaz and Asir lies the great plateau area of
Najd. This region is mainly rocky plateau interspersed by small,
sandy deserts and isolated mountain clumps. The best known of the
mountain groups is the Jabal Shammar, northwest of Riyadh and
just south of the An Nafud. This area is the home of the pastoral
Shammar tribes, which under the leadership of the Al Rashid were
the most implacable foes of the Al Saud in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. Their capital was the large oasis
of Hail, now a flourishing urban center.
Across the peninsula as a whole, the plateau slopes toward
the east from an elevation of 1,360 meters in the west to 750
meters at its easternmost limit. A number of wadis cross the
region in an eastward direction from the Red Sea escarpment
toward the Persian Gulf. There is little pattern to these remains
of ancient riverbeds; the most important of them are Wadi ar
Rummah, Wadi as Surr, and Wadi ad Dawasir.
The heart of Najd is the area of the Jabal Tuwayq, an
arc-shaped ridge with a steep west face that rises between 100
and 250 meters above the plateau. Many oases exist in this area,
the most important of which are Buraydah, Unayzah, Riyadh, and Al
Kharj. Outside the oasis areas, Najd is sparsely populated. Large
salt marshes (sabkah) are scattered throughout the area.
Data as of December 1992
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