Two men died after they lost GPS signals while travelling through the world’s largest sand desert, called Rub’ al-Khali in Saudi Arabia.
Stretching across 250,000 square miles, the largest area of sand on earth is almost uninhabited despite having oil fields underground.
The desert is reached through the world’s longest straight road, the 256km-long Highway 10 where GPS is necessary to navigate off-road.
Indian media outlets reported that Mohammad Shehzad Khan, hailing from Telangana and his Sudanese colleague lost GPS signal while driving through the desert a week ago.
With the glitch in the GPS along with Khan’s phone battery dying, they could not find the route out of a Rub’ al-Khali.
The two men were stranded in the desert, called the Empty Quarter, without food and water as they could not find a route and unable to call for help when their car ran out of fuel.
Their bodies were found covered in sand beside their vehicle four days after they were last seen.
Reports said that the Indian man and his Sudanese colleague both died of dehydration and exhaustion.
It is worth mentioning here that Rub’ al-Khali is believed to be the largest sand desert in the world at 650km across.
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In May this year, a tourist’s car sank after they drove it into a stream while navigating the area through Google Maps.
The four-member tourist group hailing from India’s Hyderabad were driving an SUV in Kuruppanthara area of Kerala when they drove the vehicle into a stream.
Reports said that the driver was travelling on a road covered by overflowing water from the stream due to heavy rains in Kerala as he followed Google Maps.
The driver, not familiar with the area, blindly followed Google Maps and drove right into the water body.
