First Western crossing of the Rub' al Khali (Bertram Thomas)
Primer cruce occidental del Rub al-Jali (Bertram Thomas)
- Date
- octubre de 1930 - febrero de 1931 · confidence high
- Place
- Salalah, Dhofar, Oman
- Credited to
- Bertram Thomas and Bedouin guides from Dhofar
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A crossing of the world's largest sand desert from Salalah to Doha, with Bedouin guides, mapping its dunes and wells and locating the Wabar craters. It cleared one of the biggest blank spaces on the Arabian map.
Thomas was the first Westerner to cross it; the local Bedouin knew it, and Harry St John Philby crossed it soon afterwards (1932) from the other side.
What it led to
- a map of the Empty Quarter and its caravan routes
- later crossings by Philby and Thesiger