Tuesday 18 / March / 2025
Muscat: An adventurer claims to have found the world’s highest sand dune in Oman at a height of 455 metres above sea level.
Dr. Eid Al Yahya, a Saudi anthropological researcher and a TV presenter, who was on a discovery trip, revealed that the world’s highest sand dune is in the Dhofar Governorate at the Ramlat Jadilah desert. It breaks the previous record of a sand dune in Namibia, which was 418 metres high above sea level. Ramlat Al Jadilah is situated in Al Rub Al Khali (The Empty Quarter). Al Rub Al Khali also covers parts of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen.“The journey to the sand dune took three hours, but I’ve been searching for ten years for this,” said Al Yahya. He also expressed his admiration for the Sultanate. “This is a 7,000-year-old ancient civilisation, and is one that needs to be deeply explored.”
His journey also took him to historic relics and traditions, including the frankincense ‘al-luban’, and its transport from Dhofar to various regional empires. “The convoys travelled through the Arabian deserts, which have been crossed by ancient Chinese, Indian, and Egyptians,” he explained.
Yahya expressed his intention to further research those ancient trade routes, as well as carry out more research on ‘al-luban’ for its possible medical uses.
