Harrat al-Sham

Ḥarrat al-Shām Black Desert
Desert
Location within the Levant of the wider volcanic province it is part of
Coordinates: 32°37′53″N 36°45′52″E / 32.63139°N 36.76444°E / 32.63139; 36.76444
Part of	Syrian Desert
Offshore water bodies	Lake Burqu' (see Qasr Burqu') Qa Shubayqa
Age	Oligocene, Neogene, Quaternary
Geology	Basaltic volcanic field
Volcanic field	Harrat Ash Shaam Volcanic Province (HASV)

The Ḥarrat al-Shām (Arabic: حَرَّة ٱلشَّام),^{[1][nb 1]} also known as the Harrat al-Harra or Harrat al-Shaba,^[2] and sometimes the Black Desert in English,^[3] is a region of rocky, basaltic desert straddling southern Syrian region and the northern Arabian Peninsula. It covers an area of some 40,000 km² (15,000 sq mi)^{[citation needed]} in the modern-day Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Vegetation is characteristically open acacia shrubland with patches of juniper at higher altitudes.^[4]

The Harrat has been occupied by humans since at least the Late Epipalaeolithic (c. 12,500–9500 BCE).^[5] One of the earliest known sites is Shubayqa 1 (occupied c. 12,600–10,000 BCE),^[5][6] a Natufian site where archaeologists have discovered the remains of the oldest known bread.^[7]

The Harrat comprises volcanic fields formed by tectonic activity from the Oligocene through to the Quaternary.^[8] It is the largest of several volcanic fields on the Arabian Plate,^[9] containing more than 800 volcanic cones and around 140 dikes.^[8] Activity began during the Miocene; an earlier eruptive stage at the southeastern end of the volcanic field, occurred during the late Pleistocene and the Holocene.^[10] It is known to have erupted in historic times.^[11][12]

The Jabal al-Druze, al-Safa and Dirat al-Tulul volcanic fields, among others, form the northern and Syrian part of the ḥarra. The Saudi Arabian portion of the Harrat Ash Shamah volcanic field extends across a 210 km (130 miles)-long, roughly 75 km (47 miles)-wide northwest-southeast-trending area on the northeastern flanks of the Wadi Sirhan and reaches its 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) high point at Jabal al-Amud. It is in the Tabuk Province of northwest Saudi Arabia.^[13][14] and is one of a series of Quaternary volcanic fields paralleling the Red Sea coast.

The Harrat has traditionally been occupied by nomadic Bedouin of the Anizah confedaration.^[15][16] It It is primarily associated with the Ahl al-Jabal tribe, who graze sheep, goats, donkeys and camels there, but the Rwala, Zbaid, Ghayyath, Sardiyya and other tribes also use the area at times.^[16] Although the region as a whole is too dry for rainfed agriculture, seasonal wetlands such as the Qa' Shubayqa are used for growing cereals after they are flooded by winter rains.^[16][17] In the second half of the 20th century, many Bedouin settled in the village of Safawi, which grew up around a pumping station on the Kirkuk–Haifa oil pipeline (H5).^[18]

• Desert kites

• Jawa, Jordan, Early Bronze Age proto-urban settlement
• Qasr al-Azraq and Qasr 'Ain es-Sil, ancient desert castles in the Azraq oasis
• Qasr Burqu', ancient "desert castle"
• Qasr Usaykhim, an ancient fort northeast of Azraq
• Shubayqa 1, Natufian hunter-gatherer site with the oldest bread-making find in the world

• Syrian Desert
• Hauran, a historical region partially overlapping with the Harrat al-Sham
• List of volcanoes in Saudi Arabia
• Sarawat Mountains
  • Midian Mountains

• Ilani, S., Harlavan, Y., Tarawneh, K., Rabba, I., Weinberger, R., Khalil, I., and Peltz, S. (2001), "New K-Ar ages of basalts from the Harrat Ash Shaam volcanic field in Jordan: Implications for the span and duration of the upper-mantle upwelling beneath the western Arabian plate" Geology 29(2):171–174
• Kempe, S. and Al-Malabeh, A. (2005), "Newly discovered lava tunnels of the Al-Shaam plateau basalts", Geophysical Research Abstracts 7, European Geosciences Union
• Salf, S.I. (1988), "Field and petrographic characteristics of Cenozoic basaltic rocks, Northwestern Saudi Arabia" Journal of African Earth Sciences, 7(5):805–809
• Weinstein, Y., Navon, O., Altherr, R., and Stein, M., (2006) "The role of lithospheric mantle heterogeneity in the generation of Plio-Pleistocene alkali basalt suites from NW Harrat Ash Shaam (Israel)", Journal of Petrology 47(5):1017–1050
• Al Kwatli, M.A., Gillot, P.Y., Zeyen, H., Hildenbrand, A., and Al Gharib, I., 2012. Volcano-tectonic evolution of the northern part of the Arabian plate in the light of new K-Ar ages and remote sensing: Harrat Ash Shaam volcanic province (Syria). Tectonophysics, 580, 192–207.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Black Desert.

• Saudi Arabia portal
• "Harrat Ash Shaam". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
• VolcanoWorld information and aerial photograph