Dude... did you just recognize this? how did you know? I took these pictures when I also took some pictures of Egypt and didn't even notice that I had drifted so far away, when I found these fields!

I am speechless!

You need to explain why you're putting three spaces between sentences.

And now they are growing alfalfa in California if all places to export to Saudi Arabia

Not sure what lithium pool look like, but this is called center-pivot irrigation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center-pivot_irrigation, and it’s how crops are typically done in the desert where there is no river or canal to pull from. Water is piped from wherever, or drawn up from a well and pumped into the irrigation arm. It’s on wheels and slowly rotates around the point where water is being pumped in. I see these all the time in southern Arizona and California deserts.

The images are in 4K so you can zoom in quite a lot. I think some of the discolorations is down to maybe clouds getting in the way?

I'm pretty sure its farms though https://maps.app.goo.gl/FHveJiWGL8SoHjkD6

They have very clear crop lines, that seems good evidence for OPs assessment.

Usually every source possible. A lot of the time it's non regenerative groundwater.

I guess maybe it's about getting as much as possible out of the little water that they have. Just changed the title to "dry areas" instead of actual deserts

in the middle of an empty [...] desert.

But there's the thing: It's all desert. And people still need to eat. They're using groundwater, here, and it was adequate. Decisions taken in that time period were good decisions.

Now it's changing. And just like California Almond farmers need to seriously switch to a crop that isn't at the heart of the water wars, Saudis need to switch to methods and crops that use miniscule amounts of water.

It indeed is interesting! I went back and took some pictures where they fields are not quite as visible. I don't know if these are new fields, or abandoned.