Page 35 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter One

proper for months with not much more than their camels and a few
dates to live off. This desert was crossed for the first lime by a
European when Bertram Thomas rode by camel in 1930-31 from
Salalah in Dhufar on the Indian Ocean to Doha, the capital of Qatar.0
Only in the last few years have the routes of commercial airlines
begun to cross the length and breadth of this desert.
The fringes of the desert are ill-defined, because a period of several
years without any rain can convert areas which were abundant in
thorn-bushes and seasonal vegetation into utterly lifeless terrain for
decades until rain falls again and the dormant plant life is revived. In
times of drought or as a result of the ravages of sandstorms the desert
encroaches on the fertile oases in the settled areas. On the other
hand, a year or two of exceptionally heavy rains can open to grazing
regions of the desert which have not been frequented for many years.
The desert within the borders of the UAE may be divided into two
main sections. A desert foreland extends from the west of the
mountains between Ra's al Khaimah and the al 'Ain oases towards
the coast; in this area the gentle red dunes support extensive verdure
in the form of perennial thorn-bushes, tamarisks and some annual
vegetation. The more westerly tracts of the desert in the country
support less vegetation, and eventually towards the southern border
of Abu Dhabi the rolling dunes become distinctive crescent-shaped
barren sand mountains encircling equally lifeless gravel plains.

The sea
The surrounding desert to the south and west accounts for the
isolation of the country, whose contact with the outside world has
mostly been by way of the sea which it faces in the north. The whole
of the Gulf is very shallow, the maximum depth being only 50
fathoms (90 metres).7 The southern waters of the Gulf are charac­
terised by a great number of coral reefs and sandbanks, which
together with the numerous low-lying islands make navigation
extremely difficult and hazardous. Most of the southern coast is
utterly flat, marshy or sandy; it is indented by a number of creeks
along much of the Lower Gulf shoreline of the UAE, except for the
short stretch north of Ra’s al Khaimah, where the mountains rise
steeply from the sea. Due to the extreme difficulty of approach and
the lack of any sizeable natural harbours there was comparatively
little long-distance shipping undertaken during the last few cen­
turies from the ports of this coast, and overseas trade-at times almost
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