Bounded on the east by the Persian Gulf, the ecoregion is effectively surrounded on its other sides by the Arabian desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands ecoregion. The inland reaches of the ecoregion are a flat extension of the coastal plain, ending at the red-brown dunes of the ad-Dahna Desert and in the south at the edge of the "Empty Quarter" of Saudi Arabia, the Rub' al Khali.[1] The maximum elevation in the ecoregion is 313 metres (1,027 ft).[2]