An Nafud not include entering the Nafud, as is depicted in the film "Lawrence of Arabia". The discovery of an 85,000-year-old fossilised human finger in An Nafud in 2016 by Dr Mathieu Duval of Griffith University provided the earliest evidence of modern humans outside Africa and the Levant. An Nafud An Nafud or Al-Nefud or The Nefud () is a desert in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula at , occupying a great oval depression. It is long and wide, with an area of . The Nafud is an erg, a desert region located in the north-central Saudi Arabia. Noted for
Jabal Aja Protected Area Area because of the richness of its plant life and the presence of many endemic and relict plant species. The reserve offers a refuge to plants from the Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian Regions in an area that otherwise forms part of the Saharo-Arabian Region. About 355 species of plant have been recorded in the reserve, including the plants found in the adjoining desert area of An Nafud. The plains have deep sandy-loam soils and the dominant plant is "Haloxylon salicornicum", with the desert gourd being common and "Asphodelus tenuifolius" occurring in depressions. The annual plants "Stipa tortilis", "Picris cyanocarpa" and "Anthemis"