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Saudi Arabia
Najd
East of the Hijaz and Asir lies the great plateau area of Najd.
This region is mainly rocky plateau interspersed by small, sandy
deserts and isolated mountain clumps. The best known of the mountain
groups is the Jabal Shammar, northwest of Riyadh and just south
of the An Nafud. This area is the home of the pastoral Shammar
tribes, which under the leadership of the Al Rashid were the most
implacable foes of the Al Saud in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Their capital was the large oasis of Hail,
now a flourishing urban center.
Across the peninsula as a whole, the plateau slopes toward the
east from an elevation of 1,360 meters in the west to 750 meters
at its easternmost limit. A number of wadis cross the region in
an eastward direction from the Red Sea escarpment toward the Persian
Gulf. There is little pattern to these remains of ancient riverbeds;
the most important of them are Wadi ar Rummah, Wadi as Surr, and
Wadi ad Dawasir.
The heart of Najd is the area of the Jabal Tuwayq, an arc-shaped
ridge with a steep west face that rises between 100 and 250 meters
above the plateau. Many oases exist in this area, the most important
of which are Buraydah, Unayzah, Riyadh, and Al Kharj. Outside
the oasis areas, Najd is sparsely populated. Large salt marshes
(sabkah) are scattered throughout the area.
Data as of December 1992
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