The Rub' al-Khali desert was thought to be an endless sea of sand, but one 1998 discovery has shed light on a 5,000-year-old ...

For centuries, the Rub' al-Khali desert near Saudi Arabia and Dubai — known as the Empty Quarter — was dismissed as a lifeless sea of sand. But now, it's revealing an astonishing secret.

In the southern expanse of the Arabian Peninsula lies the Rub’ al Khali desert, the world’s largest sand mass, covering parts of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.