@mutt
Yes it was at least 12000 lower than what one usually crosses over that area. That was one of the main reasons why it took me a while to figure out what we were over as it filled the window and one could actually see buildings rather than dots of lights. When I looked back at the IFE i noticed we were at 25000. By the time we came near Bahrain we were down to 17K and then were circling at 14K for a while 100 miles west of DXB.