Moreeb Dune — dune
Nepenthes · CC BY-SA 3.0

Moreeb Dune

  • 1 min read
  • 22.980° N 53.786° E

Interesting facts

  • Its Arabic name, Tal Moreeb, is usually translated as the terrifying or scary hill.
  • Around 2001 local Emiratis began racing cars and motorbikes up the dune, when the only challenge was to reach the top.
  • The Liwa festival was formally launched in 2004, after Abu Dhabi approved a motor club that later became the Liwa Sports Club.
  • The festival runs from late December into early January and ends with the Moreeb hill climb championship and New Year's Eve fireworks.
  • The 2024 edition, held over the turn of the year, drew more than 640,000 visitors.
  • Alongside motorsport, the festival programme includes camel and horse races and falconry.
  • The surrounding Empty Quarter covers about 650,000 square kilometres across Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE and Yemen.
  • The sand of the Empty Quarter owes its reddish-orange colour to grains of the mineral feldspar.

Why it is worth it

Moreeb Dune (Tal Moreeb) is a single mountain of sand on the northern edge of the Rub' al Khali, the Empty Quarter, about 25 km south of the Liwa Oasis in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi. It rises some 300 m and runs for about 1.6 km, and its face is a slipface pitched at around 50 degrees, steep enough that loose sand pours down it in slow streams whenever the wind or a footstep disturbs the crest. It is the tallest dune in the United Arab Emirates and among the highest anywhere.

What makes the place so striking is scale rather than any single feature. The dune stands like a wall above the flat ground at its foot, and the low sun of early morning and late afternoon brings out its texture: the ripples on the flanks, the sharp edge of the crest and the shadow that fills the hollow below. From the top the view runs over ridge after ridge of the Empty Quarter.

The dune is also the stage for one of the region's best-known motorsport spectacles. The Liwa festival, usually held in the winter months, brings the Moreeb Hill Climb, in which four-wheel drives, quad bikes and dirt bikes race straight up the slope, alongside drag races on the flat below. Outside festival days the dune is quiet, and it is simply one of the easiest places in Arabia to stand face to face with a true sand sea.

Getting there

Moreeb Dune lies about 25 km south of the Liwa Oasis settlements and about 250 km from the city of Abu Dhabi; Zayed City (Madinat Zayed) is about 75 km away in a straight line. The nearest international airport is Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi (AUH), about 184 km away. The usual approach is by road: a long drive from Abu Dhabi to Liwa, then on along the main road south to Moreeb.

On these lists

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From the encyclopaedia

Moreeb Dune or Tal Moreeb is a large sized sand dune located in proximity of Liwa Oasis at the Empty Quarter desert in the United Arab Emirates. With a reported 50 degree slipface, and height of 300 metres, the dune is popular for organised Liwa Moreeb Dune Festival and drag races competitions. Moreeb Hill is the tallest dune in the UAE, and one of the largest hill climbs in the world. Moreeb Dune is one of the highest sand hills in the world. The dune is 1600 meters long.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

22.97967, 53.78622per Wikidata