A 149-mile-long stretch of highway connecting two towns in Saudi Arabia holds the title of the world’s longest straight road.
Saudi Arabia’s Highway 10 stretches 916 miles (1,474 km), connecting the town of Al Darb, in the southwest, to Al Batha, in the east. It’s quite a busy road, most traversed by trucks shipping goods from one side of the country to the other, but it is most famous for a 149-mile stretch through the Rub-al-Khali desert. This particular piece of infrastructure was originally built as a private road for King Fahd (SAU), but ever since it became part of the public road system, it claimed the Guinness Record for the world’s longest straight road, also known as ‘the most boring road in the world’, due to its complete lack of bends, almost completely flat terrain, and bland, featureless surroundings as far as the eye can see.
Photo: Agraam
The stretch of Highway 10 connecting Highway 75 in the Haradh area to Highway 95 in the west of Saudi Arabia pierces the desert in a curveless line for 149 miles (240 km), before bending slightly just before the town of Al Batha, near the Gulf Coast and the border with the United Arab Emirates. According to Guinness Records, this super-straight stretch of road has an estimated driving time of about 2 hours.
Interestingly, the world’s longest straight road claimed the title from a 91.1-mile stretch of Australia’s Eyre Highway. It is still known as Australia’s longest straight road.
While you’re here, check out The Line, Saudi Arabia’s 170-km-long city of the future, and Europe’s longest ice road.
