DESERT LANDSCAPE

The stereotype of the Saudi Arabian landscape can be summed up with four words: sand dunes and camels. But most people who visit the Kingdom are struck in one way or another by the country's diversity of habitat. While there are indeed a considerable number of camels and sand dunes, the region is also home to mountains, baboons, ancient volcanoes, mesas, coral reefs, and, if you can believe it, even ice.

The extreme highlands of the southwest, known for their pleasant year-round temperatures, are struck with the occasional frost during the winter months, usually melted away by mid-day.

One particular characteristic that is uncharacteristic for the land whose very mention conjures cinematic images from "Lawrence of Arabia" is the growing of such undesert-like crops as tomatoes and eggplants. More farms have been cropping up around the southwest and in recent years more of these farms are also growing mangoes, the ubiquitous fruit of the tropics. People have said that these mangoes are quite sweet and indistinguishable from their Indian cousins.