Detour #345: Highway Hypnosis on the World’s Longest, Straightest Road, Saudi Arabia
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With its seemingly endless vanishing point, Saudi Arabia’s Highway 10 is officially the longest, straightest road in the world.
That’s according to Guinness World Records which says: “Built originally as a private road for King Fahd (SAU), the stretch of Highway 10 connecting Highway 75 in the Haradh area to Highway 95 in the west of Saudi Arabia is 240 km (149 mi) long. It cuts through the desert with no bends left or right, or any appreciable gradient up or down. The super-straight stretch has an estimated driving time of around 2 hr.”
Those are the bare facts, but they fail to convey the relentlessness of this desert drive that slices through the sand with an almost surreal precision. There’s not a kink in sight, not an incline to alter your altitude, just arrow-straight asphalt for almost 150 miles.
After the initial awe of the harsh desert and infinite blue sky fades, the view of the limitless flat sandscape soon becomes monotonous. The biggest driving challenge is simply to stay alert. Barrelling along at the 75mph speed limit sounds like it should be enough to maintain attention, but such is the empty vastness that any sense of speed is diminished. In daytime hours heat haze turns the road ahead into a disturbing blur. It’s a recipe for highway hypnosis.
Although accidents aren’t that common, when they do occur, they are catastrophic. With no central divider between the two lanes, a head-on collision at high closing speeds is more like a plane crash. In July 2023 five people died and eight more were injured when two mini buses collided.
You’ll find no fuel along the way, so a full tank, a well-prepped car and a supply of water and snacks are musts before taking on this drive. Avoiding the most extremes of temperature is wise and also throws in some added benefits.
Sunrise on Highway 10 is something special as the light spills across the desert floor in soft gold, casting long shadows that slowly retreat as the day warms up. But it’s sunset that steals the show. As the sun dips low, the sky ignites in shades of orange, pink, and deep violet.
It’s a lonely road for sure, but that in itself can be bonus as it resets your perspective. You can find yourself reflecting as there’s nothing else competing for your attention. Call it motoring mindfulness.
And maybe that’s the real beauty of Highway 10 – a space to think, to simply exist in motion. Sometimes, the most extraordinary journeys are the ones that appear, at first glance, to be the simplest.
Photo Shutterstock
ROADBOOK
CLASS: Desert Drive
NAME: Highway 10
ROUTE: Haradh to Al Batha
COUNTRY: Saudi Arabia
Distance: 250 Miles
With its seemingly endless vanishing point, Saudi Arabia’s Highway 10 is officially the longest, straightest road in the world.