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The Empty Quarter (Arabic: Rub' al Khali الربع الخالي), is the largest sand desert in the world, encompassing the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including southern Saudi Arabia, and areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres (250,000 square miles) (the area between long. 44°30'-56°30'E., and lat. 16'30'-23°00'N), more than the combined land areas of Holland, Belgium and France.

Largely unexplored (until recently, see below), and virtually uninhabited, the desert is one thousand kilometres (600 miles) long, and 500 km (300 mi) wide. Even the Bedouins only skirt the edges of the desert. Nonetheless, tour companies do exist that offer GPS-equipped excursions into the desert. The first documented journeys made by Westerners to the Empty Quarter were those made by Bertram Thomas in 1931 and St John Philby in 1932.

With summer temperatures up to nearly 55°C Celsius (131° F Fahrenheit) at noon, and dunes taller than the Eiffel Tower — over 330 metres (1000 ft) — the desert may be the most forbidding environment on Earth. However, as nearly everywhere else, life flourishes. Arachnids, rodents and plant life can all be found throughout the Empty Quarter. As an eco-region, it falls within the Arabian Desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands.