Nafud desert in the context of "Rub' al Khali"

Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in the 1950s as an offshoot of the 18th century walled town following the dismantling of its defensive fortifications.

It is the largest city on the Arabian Peninsula, and is situated in the center of the Nafud desert, on the eastern part of the Najd plateau. The city sits at an average of 600 meters (2,000 ft) above sea level, and receives around 5 million tourists each year, making it the forty-ninth most visited city in the world and the 6th in the Middle East. Riyadh had a population of 7.0 million people in 2022, making it the most-populous city in Saudi Arabia, 3rd most populous in the Middle East, and the 38th most populous in Asia.

Najd is a historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes most of the central region of Saudi Arabia. It is roughly bounded by the Hejaz region to the west, the Nafud desert in al-Jawf to the north, ad-Dahna Desert in al-Ahsa to the east, and Rub' al-Khali to the south, although its exact boundaries cannot be determined due to varying geographical and political limits throughout history.

Administratively, Najd is divided into three main regions: the Riyadh region which features Wadi Hanifa and the Tuwaiq escarpment, which houses easterly Yamama with the Saudi capital, Riyadh since 1824, and the Sudairi region, which has its capital in Majmaah. The second region, Al-Qassim, houses the fertile oases and date palm orchards spread out in the region's highlands along Wadi Rummah in central Najd with its capital in Buraidah, the second largest Najdi city, with the region historically contested by the House of Rashid to its north and the House of Saud to its east and south. The third administrative unit is northerly Ḥa'il, which features the mountains of Jabal Shammar housing the Tayy capital of Ḥa'il.

Tayma /ˈteɪmə/ (Arabic: تيماء, romanized: Taymāʾ; Taymanitic: 𐪉𐪃𐪑, TMʾ, vocalized as: Taymāʾ), also spelled Tema, is a city and governorate, in Tabuk Province, and major oasis with a long history of habitation. It is located in northwestern Saudi Arabia at the point where the trade route between Medina and Dumah (Sakaka) begins to cross the Nafud desert. Tayma lies about 264 km (164 mi) southeast of Tabuk and approximately 400 km (250 mi) north of Medina. The oasis is situated in the western portion of the Nafud desert.