| Type: | town |
| County: | Dolj |
| Official Name: | Dăbuleni |
| Leader Name: | Aurel Băjenaru[1] |
| Leader Party: | PSD |
| Term: | 2020 - 2024 |
| Coordinates: | 43.8011°N 24.0919°W |
| Area Total: | 182.86 |
| Population Total: | auto |
Dăbuleni (in Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan pronounced as /dəbuˈlenʲ/) is a town of Dolj County, Oltenia, Romania. It was declared a town in 2004 (Law no. 83/2004). One village, Chiașu, is administered by the town.
Dăbuleni is known for the sandy areas surrounding it; since the 1980s, those areas have become part of an desert, known as the Oltenian Sahara. The town is the only place in Europe where a museum dedicated to sand exists. If the north part of the town is a desert, the south part is a Danube flooding area known as the Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: patria pepenilor or Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: patria lubenițelor (the "Motherland of the Melons" or "of the Watermelons"), from which the Dăbuleni melons are famous in all of Romania.
Dăbuleni is twinned since 2014 with Vaugneray, which is in France.[2]
With water pumped from the Danube, an irrigation scheme[3] was developed during 1971 to 1975 for some 100 square kilometres of fertile land in southern Oltenia.
The Sand Museum of Dăbuleni (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Muzeul Nisipului din Dăbuleni) is a museum in Dăbuleni that has a size of 12ha.[4] [5] Its entrance is free and it is often visited by researchers and common people. The Sand Museum is located in the Oltenian Sahara, an area of around 80000ha in the Oltenia region, in the south of the Dolj County (near the Danube), where the town of Dăbuleni is located.[6] Romania has been claimed to be the only country with a museum dedicated to sand in Europe or even the world.[7]