Harrat al-Sham
The 36th largest desert in the world
The Ḥarrat al-Shām (Arabic: حَرَّة ٱلشَّام), also known as the Harrat al-Harra or Harrat al-Shaba, and sometimes the Black Desert in English, is a region of rocky, basaltic desert straddling southern Syrian region and the northern Arabian Peninsula. It covers an area of some 40,000 km2 (15,000 sq mi) in the modern-day Syrian Arab Republic, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Vegetation is characteristically open acacia shrubland with patches of juniper at higher altitudes. The Harrat has been occupied by humans since at least the Late Epipalaeolithic (c. 12,500–9500 BCE). One of the earliest known sites is Shubayqa 1 (occupied c. 12,600–10,000 BCE), a Natufian site where archaeologists have discovered the remains of the oldest known bread.
Location: Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia.
Desert data from Wikidata (CC0).