This is something that would make Lawrence of Arabia turn in his grave. Recent studies are now showing that sand, once Saudi Arabia's most common commodity (outside of oil) is now becoming almost as scarce as water. For those of you who are still fascinated with the1962 Hollywood extravaganza starring Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharrif there seemed to be an endless amount of the yellowish grainy stuff , especially when a frequent sand storm would obliterate virtually all landscapes until it blew over. Or, when Lawrence and his Arab friends crossed the seemingly un-crossable    Ar Rub’ al Khali or Empty Quarter; where people often disappeared forever, and where giant sand dunes have replaced lakes containing such creatures as hippopotamuses ,oryx , and even crocodiles.

All this may be history, however, as it now appears that due to the high quality of Saudi sand for building projects in Bahrain and other Persian Gulf locations   is now becoming scarce as to result in a halting of the export of tons of this material which is one of the main ingredients of concrete and other building materials used in the construction of all those futuristic-looking cities that are now often seen in TV advertisements promoting tourism and business venues in these locations.  As noted by Stuart Burns, in the building website, Metal Miner, noted the woes of construction companies in the Persian Gulf , where construction work on many projects has had to slow up due to curtails by the Saudis on the export of cement, which contains high amounts of Saudi sand.

Saudi sand, being usually found in hard to get to desert areas, like Ar Rub al Khali, is expensive to transport to concrete companies, which mix it with gravel and other materials to make the high grade concrete desired for these building projects, including ones like Masdar City in Abu Dhabi said to be the world's first "carbon neutral" project, and only projected to be fully completed by the year 2020 (due to a lack of Saudi sand, perhaps?).

Perhaps the Saudis are simply keeping their national symbol for themselves; as they have a few   ongoing construction projects of their own in various locations around their vast desert kingdom - so vast that Lawrence himself became captivated it and roamed it's seemingly endless desert regions on his favorite camel, Jedha, whom he called "a splendid beast".

You can't blame global warming on this problem, however; but simply greed to build more and more construction projects. An article in Treehugger notes that "in Bahrain they have started importing from the United Arab Emirates and are mixing it with their own marine sand. The head of the contractor's committee says:   "The quality of this (sand) will not be as good but we shall make do with it."  

Photo: www.imdbcom

Sources: www.treehugger.com , www.metalminer.com , www.saudiaramcoworld.com