'Uruq Bani Ma'arid
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How it came to be
'Uruq Bani Ma'arid lies on the western edge of the Rub' al-Khali, the largest expanse of windblown sand on Earth. Parallel ridges of red sand are separated by corridors, and wadis cut into the limestone plateau. For generations the area has been used by pastoral, nomadic Bedu.
A royal decree created the reserve in 1992. The Arabian oryx had become extinct in the wild, and from 1995 animals bred in captivity were released here, together with Arabian sand gazelles and mountain gazelles. Between 1995 and 2013 some 149 oryx were released, and about 500 were estimated to live in the reserve in 2013. The reserve is unfenced, so they form a population living in the wild.
The mobile dunes give sand-diving invertebrates and reptiles a well-oxygenated habitat, and rare relict plants survive in the wadis. On 20 September 2023, at the World Heritage Committee's session in Riyadh, the reserve became Saudi Arabia's first natural World Heritage site. It covers more than 12,700 km².
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