Editing Umm al Samim

{{Short description|Area of quicksand in the Rub' al Khali desert}}
The '''Umm al Samim''' ({{Langx|ar|أم السّميم}}) (also known as the '''Umm as Samim''') is a [[quicksand]] area<ref name="Rabi2006">{{cite book|last=Rabi|first=Uzi|title=The Emergence of States in a Tribal Society: Oman Under Saʻid Bin Taymur, 1932-1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jgq3pS9qJgkC&pg=PA235|accessdate=14 April 2013|year=2006|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=9781845190804|pages=235–}}</ref><ref name="Maitland2011">{{cite book|last=Maitland|first=Alexander|title=Wilfred Thesiger: The Life of the Great Explorer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jiqr8erOb9cC&pg=RA1-PR31|accessdate=14 April 2013|date=2011-10-27|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9781590209950}}</ref> on the eastern edge of the [[Rub al'khali]] [[desert]] largely within [[Oman]]'s borders.<ref name="Ham2004">{{cite book|last=Ham|first=Anthony|title=Lonely Planet Saudi Arabia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PddTr1X7hEgC&pg=PA144|accessdate=14 April 2013|year=2004|publisher=Lonely Planet|isbn=9781740596671|pages=144–}}</ref> The waters, such as they are, drain into this brackish low-lying [[closed basin]] area off the Omani mountains and the [[wadi]]s of the Rub al'khali. The Al Samim (known locally as the 'Mother of Poisons' or the 'Mother of Worries') is a [[salt marsh]] with a solid-looking crust, but can be very treacherous when broken through. There is little vegetation.

Sir [[Wilfred Thesiger]] was the first European to see the area in the late 1940s after his travels from [[Salalah]] in Oman.<ref name=Maitland2011/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Coord|21|38|N|55|54|E|display=title}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Umm Al Samim}}
[[Category:Deserts of Oman]]
[[Category:Landforms of Oman]]
[[Category:Endorheic basins of Asia]]
[[Category:Salt marshes]]


{{Oman-geo-stub}}