PPT Slide
Not all of the Empty Quarter is uninhabited, however. The city of Sharwrah sits near the sometimes-volatile border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It is a strategic outpost for the Saudis, inhabited by some 40,000 civilian and military personnel.
This photograph features the Mayor of Sharwrah, atop a nearby dune at dusk.
Sharwrah’s water comes from
aquifers ɭ km deep, and is
hot and brackish. People must
purchase drinking water from
vendors; a man fills containers