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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Jon Gambrell

A trip to the United Arab Emirates' darkest spot reveals a rare view of the Milky Way

Emirates Milky Way - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The gleaming skyscrapers and brights lights of the United Arab Emirates draw the eyes of all who travel there, a sign of the Arabian Peninsula nation's rapid, oil-fueled development over the last decades into a major hub for commerce and tourism.

But something has been lost over that period: a clear vision across nearly all of the country's inhabited lands of the stars in the night sky that once guided Bedouin across the shifting desert dunes of its vast interior, known as the Empty Quarter.

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