Harrat al-Sham

*Ḥarrat al-Shām*

Black Desert
Ḥarrat al-Shām Black Desert
Desert
	Location within the Levant of the wider volcanic province it is part of
	Coordinates: 32°37′53″N 36°45′52″E
Part of	Syrian Desert
Offshore water bodies	Lake Burqu' (see Qasr Burqu'); Qa Shubayqa;
Age	Oligocene, Neogene, Quaternary
Geology	Basaltic volcanic field
Volcanic field	Harrat Ash Shaam Volcanic Province (HASV)

The Ḥarrat al-Shām (Arabic: حَرَّة ٱلشَّام), also known as the Black Desert, is a region of rocky, basaltic desert straddling southern Syria and the northern Arabian Peninsula. It covers an area of some 40,000 km² (15,000 sq mi) in the modern-day Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Vegetation is characteristically open acacia shrubland with patches of juniper at higher altitudes.

The Harrat has been occupied by humans since at least the Late Epipalaeolithic period (c. 12,500–9500 BCE). One of the earliest known sites is Shubayqa 1 (occupied c. 12,600–10,000 BCE), where archaeologists have discovered the remains of the oldest known bread.

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