Several years ago, the media of a former Soviet country reported that its head of state had reached an agreement with the United Arab Emirates on the supply of sand. The news that someone had sold millions worth of sand to the Arabs from the desert looked downright strange and even ridiculous. One could suspect in all this some kind of corruption trace. However, the deal was completely fair. The fact is that almost all states standing in the deserts today are forced to buy sand in other places.
When a state standing in the desert buys sand on the side - it looks frankly strange, at least for people who are not privy to the question. They have their own sand around the sea! Why do the Arabs still need to fill the dunes? In fact, they use sand in the same way as in many other parts of the world. It is worth recalling that it is sand that is an important building material. And the most important thing is that it can be very different in its characteristics.
Desert sand is a very specific thing and absolutely not suitable for construction work. It is not possible to use it to create modern structures due to the increased crumbling. The great fluidity of the sand is dictated by the size of its granules, as well as the shape - the grains of sand are too smooth. Such sand is perfectly poured into every crevice, but when you try to use it in mortars, nothing good comes out. Concrete on such sand turns out to be frankly useless, gives strong shrinkage. You can not use such sand during work with the foundation.
It is for this reason that many states in the deserts are doomed to buy this seemingly affordable and simple building material on the side. For a better understanding of the issue, it is worth adding that the sand resulting from the destruction of solid rocks (quarry, river, sea) has granules with a diameter of 0.16-4.5 mm. At the same time, desert sand has granules with a diameter of 0.05-0.25 mm. It is for this reason that the bulk of desert sand is two to three times finer and lighter than sand from a quarry. Interestingly, it is precisely this property that allows Mother Nature to arrange the famous sandstorms in the deserts.
Inhabitants of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula buy sand literally all over the world. Accurate marketing is not limited to Europe. It is also bought in Asian countries, up to Australia. Sand is transported on special barges. In order to understand that the sand trade is a serious business, it is enough to say that it is periodically stolen by whole ships.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about public toilets in different countries, for which our tourists need to mentally prepare.