Saudi Arabia’s Highway 10 Has the World’s Longest Straight Road Stretch

Saudi Arabia’s Highway 10 Has the World’s Longest Straight Road Stretch

Riyadh, September 16, 2026 [VoM News]: A remarkable stretch of road in vast Empty Quarter desert of Saudi Arabia has earned the global attention for something surprisingly simple that “it barely turns.”

As the Highway 10 features a straight stretch measuring around 240 kilometres crossing the Rub al Khali, one of the world’s largest sand deserts.

The Guinness World Records recognises the route as the longest straight road on Earth.

Unlike most long highways, the road has no bends or major changes in elevation along the record-setting section.

The landscape around it is dominated by huge expanses of sand, with no mountains or major rivers forcing engineers to alter the route.

The highway was originally built as a private road for King Fahd before eventually being opened for public use.

Its unusual design has since made the route a point of interest for travellers and road enthusiasts.

For motorists, the experience can be unlike an ordinary highway journey.

Driving for hours along an almost perfectly straight road, surrounded by the quiet and seemingly endless desert, can create a strange sense of distance and repetition.

The route also highlights how the geography of the Empty Quarter made such an unusual road possible. With few natural obstacles in its path, engineers were able to maintain a remarkably direct alignment across the desert.

Today, Saudi Arabia’s Highway 10 stands as an unusual piece of infrastructure and a reminder of the extraordinary scale of the Rub al Khali.

Sources: Guinness World Records, Saudipedia