A two night stopover on our way to Italy on Etihad Airlines. An amazing sight as we flew in to Abu Dhabi. Pale yellow desert sands stretched forever, flat and marked only with faint straight tracks. Nearer to landing there were straight tarred roads and occasional squares or rectangles of green. Farms? Settlements? Nothing else. Noticably different to the undulating red sands and saltbush of the Australian desert. There may have been some coast but it was difficult to see, through the windows of the plane, just where flat dry sand became flat shore sand. During our two days here we experienced a hazy sky, partly filtering a hot, burning sun. Temperatures between 39 and 45 degrees.