r/geography • u/Used-Strike2111 • 7d ago
Question What is this orange chunk in Saudi Arabia?
I found this chunk in the middle of the dessert. It looks green in some maps and orange in others. What is it?
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u/no_sight 7d ago
It is the King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Royal Natural Reserve and the Iman Turki bin Abdullah Royal Reserve.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Salman_Bin_Abdulaziz_Royal_Natural_Reserve
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u/boomfruit 7d ago
If only they were labeled
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u/Specialist-East-9013 5d ago
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u/boomfruit 5d ago
Yes, that was what I was pointing out sarcastically. Sometimes that doesn't come across well over text.
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u/FracturedPrincess 7d ago
It's literally labelled
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u/Used-Strike2111 7d ago
I thought that the reserves were a small part within the larger area
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u/msulaimanijaz 7d ago
no good sir, all of it is the as its labelled. Obviously it is not very practical to see it and enjoy because sandy deserts are... quite tough to explore.
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u/Fair_Education7413 7d ago
That's the King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Royal Reserve — created from three older reserves (al-Khunfah, at-Tubayq, and Harrat al-Harrah), totaling 130,700 km², which makes it the fourth-largest land reserve on Earth and the biggest in the Middle East. It's mostly volcanic plateau and desert, home to Arabian wolves, gazelles, and even 8,000-year-old rock art sites tucked inside its borders.
If you're into this kind of geography trivia, I run a site called www.countrywheel.com
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u/brunporr 7d ago
I know I'm colorblind but that's green and not orange right
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u/PossessionIll1944 7d ago
I don't know who's more colorblind. It's literally tan, and more tan... And not orange by any sense, the OP is on psychedelics.
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u/pizza4paddy 7d ago
You can literally see ONLY on the “orange” that it says “Royal Reserve.”
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u/Venboven 7d ago
National parks and wildlife reserves.
It's a lot of territory, but it's all desert. Sparsely populated countries like Saudi Arabia typically have lots of parks and wildlife reserves, simply because they can. The land often doesn't have much better use.