Saudi Arabia
Edge of the World
A cliff edge where the land simply stops and flat desert stretches to infinity.
The land simply ends. One moment you are walking across flat, unremarkable desert; the next, the ground drops away vertically and the world below stretches to the horizon in a haze of dust and heat shimmer — the lip of the Tuwaiq Escarpment and the void beyond.
The Edge of the World is the local name for a section of the Tuwaiq Escarpment northwest of Riyadh, where the 800-kilometre-long limestone cliff drops several hundred metres to the desert plain below. The geological formation dates to the late Jurassic period, and the exposed rock faces contain marine fossils from a time when this region lay beneath a shallow sea. Reaching the viewpoint requires a 4x4 drive across open desert — most visitors join a guided outing from Riyadh — which adds to the sense of discovery. The site has become one of Saudi Arabia's most photographed natural landmarks.
Solo
Standing at the lip of the escarpment, working out where the ground went, is one of the rare moments when a landscape genuinely humbles you.
Couple
Sunset picnics on the cliff edge, with the desert floor turning gold hundreds of metres below, are as dramatic as they sound.
Friends
The off-road drive to reach the cliff is half the adventure — the sort of drive that bonds a group through shared navigation and a payoff view.
- The Tuwaiq Escarpment drops away vertically with nothing but flat desert extending to the horizon in every direction.
- The drive from Riyadh crosses open desert by 4x4 — an expedition before the cliff even appears.
- Sunset from the cliff edge turns the desert floor gold and the rock face crimson.
- Fossil shells in the cliff face record the shallow sea that stood here in the Jurassic.
Pack a roadside shawarma from Riyadh's backstreet grills — lamb shaved thin, garlic sauce dripping.
A thermos of cardamom coffee and a box of dates for the cliff edge as the desert floor turns gold.
Glenorchy
New Zealand
The road stops here — a glacial lake against trackless mountains at Fiordland's edge.
Pico
Portugal
Portugal's highest peak rises from the Atlantic above vineyards in black lava corrals.
Applecross
Scotland
Britain's greatest road climb hairpins over a pass to a village that time circled and left.
El Chaltén
Argentina
Granite spires pierce Patagonian cloud — condor country of vertical stone and wind.
Hisma Desert
Saudi Arabia
Red sandstone towers erupt from golden sand like a landscape sculpted on another planet.
Rub' al Khali
Saudi Arabia
Dunes two hundred metres high stretching unbroken to every horizon, silence pressing like weight.
Haql
Saudi Arabia
A rusting cargo ship half-swallowed by turquoise shallows on a beach facing the Gulf of Aqaba.
Jeddah Al-Balad
Saudi Arabia
Coral-stone towers with carved wooden balconies leaning over spice-scented alleys.