The ''Ḥarrat al-Shām'' ( ar, حَرَّة ٱلشَّام), also known as the Black Desert, is a region of rocky,

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

ic desert straddling southern Syria and the northern Arabian Peninsula. It covers an area of some in the modern-day Syrian Arab Republic,

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. Vegetation is characteristically open acacia shrubland with patches of juniper at higher altitudes The ''Harrat'' has been occupied by humans since at least the

Late Epipalaeolithic The Epipalaeolithic Near East designates the Epipalaeolithic ("Final Old Stone Age", also known as Mesolithic) in the prehistory of the Near East. It is the period after the Upper Palaeolithic and before the Neolithic, between approximately 20,00 ...

period (). One of the earliest known sites is Shubayqa 1 (occupied ), where archaeologists have discovered the remains of the oldest known bread.

Geology

The ''Harrat'' comprises

volcanic field A volcanic field is an area of Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined. Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters of up to 100 volcanoes ...

s formed by tectonic activity from the Oligocene through to the

Quaternary period The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

. It is the largest of several volcanic fields on the

Arabian Plate The Arabian Plate is a minor tectonic plate in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres. It is one of the three continental plates (along with the African and the Indian Plates) that have been moving northward in geological history and colliding ...

, containing more than 800

volcanic cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and ...

s and around 140

dikes Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes ...

. Activity began during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

; a younger eruptive stage, at the SE end of the volcanic field, occurred during the late-

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

and

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

. It is known to have erupted in historic times. The Jabal al-Druze, al-Safa and Dirat al-Tulul volcanic fields, among others, form the northern and Syrian part of the ''harrat''. The Saudi Arabian portion of the Harrat Ash Shamah volcanic field extends across a -long, roughly -wide NW-SE-trending area on the NE flanks of the Sirhan Valley and reaches its high point at Jabal Al-Amud. It is in the

Tabuk Region Tabuk ( ar, مِنْطَقَة تَبُوْك '), also spelled ''Tabouk'', is a region of Saudi Arabia, located along the north-west coast of the country, facing Egypt across the Red Sea. It has an area of 146,072 km2 and a population of 91 ...

of northwest

.Geological Survey Professional Paper, Volume 560, Part 1 (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989) and is one of a series of Quaternary volcanic fields paralleling the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

coast.

Archaeological sites

Desert kite Desert kites () are dry stone wall structures found in Southwest Asia (Middle East, but also North Africa, Central Asia and Arabia), which were first discovered from the air during the 1920s. There are over 6,000 known desert kites with sizes ran ...

Jordan

* Jawa, Early Bronze Age proto-urban settlement *

Qasr Azraq Qasr al-Azraq ( ar, قصر الأزرق, "Blue Fortress") is a large fortress located in present-day eastern Jordan. It is one of the desert castles, located on the outskirts of present-day Azraq, roughly east of Amman. Its strategic value ca ...

and Qasr 'Ain es-Sil, ancient fortified sites in the Azraq Oasis *

Qasr Burqu' Qasr Burqu' is a set of ruins and an archaeological site in the ''badia'' of eastern Jordan and is the site of one of the earliest of the Umayyad desert castles. Background Under the Umayyad Caliphate, nobles and wealthy families belonging t ...

, ancient "desert castle" * Qasr Usaykhim, ancient fort northeast of Azraq * Shubayqa 1, Stone Age (Natufian) hunter-gatherer site with oldest bread-making find in the world

Notes

References

External links

* *

{{coord missing, Syria Volcanic fields Volcanoes of Saudi Arabia Volcanoes of Jordan Volcanoes of Syria Midian