Moon's desert...

Cold Deserts of the World

The main form of precipitation in a cold desert is snow or fog. 


 

Atacama (Coasts of Peru and Chile) With a size of 140,000 km2, is a desert covered by sand dunes and pebbles. Is one of the driest areas on earth. We cand find bunchgrass, cardon cactus, tamaruga, trees lizards, llama, Peruvian fox. Atacama landscape is a nesting area where only a few thousand people (mostly farmers) live in the inland desert areas. Large deposits of sodium nitrate are found in the desert. Sodium nitrate is used to make gunpowder.

Gobi (Northern China and Southern Mongolia) With a size  of 1,200,000 km² , is a desert covered by sandy soil and areas of small stones called "gobi". There are animals like camel's thorn, grasses, bactrian bamel, gazelle, gerbil, jerboa, lizards, onager and wolfs. Likee historical reference, the Gobi was crossed by Genghis Khan in the early 13th century. Many nomads now settling on government-run farms.

Great Basin (Western United States: Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah) With a surface of 411,000 km² ,the desert is covered by sand, gravel, and clay. It has many moutains ranges, basins, and large expanses of salt flats. We can find animals like the greasewood, sagebrush, shadscale, bighorn sheep, jackrabbit, pocket mouse, poor-will, pronghorn antelope, sage thrasher and  side-blotched lizard. The Great Salt Lake is located here.

 

Iranian (Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) 390,000 km² Covered by coarse gray soil, stony pavement, and salt flats. We find grasses, pistachio trees, shrubs, monitor lizard, onager, oryx and scorpion. The world's largest salt flat located here.

Namib (Coasts of Southwestern Africa) 135,000 km² Covered by sand dunes along the coast and gravel farther inland. We find aloe, bunchgrass, lichens, welwitschia, darkling beetle, fringe-toed lizard, golden mole, jackal, sidewinder, viper and web-footed gecko. Coast of the Namib Desert is world's greatest source of gemstones.

Takla Makan (Western China) 1,600,000km² Covered by sand dunes and rocky soil.  We find grasses, shrubs, bactrian camel, jerboa, long-eared hedgeho and gazelles. The word "Takla Makan" means "place from which there is no return." It was crossed by Marco Polo in the 13th Century.

Turkestan (Parts of the Middle East and Southwestern Russia) 559,000 km² Covered mostly by extensive stretches of sand dunes. We find alhagi shrub, saxaul tree, sedges, thick ground cover, desert tortoise, gazelle, gerbil and saiga antelopes.It was crossed by caravans following silk route from China in Europe in ancient times. The great city of Samarkand,once a cultural and religious center of central Asia, was located here.

Poet's desert...

The desert has a strong relationship with spiritual quests. The desert itself invokes images of a vast expanse, where man may be alone to commune with the higher power and forces of nature. For many poets the desert is an allegory for a spiritual quest of the soul journeying into the infinite.

The desert has inspired several religions and spiritual figures dating back to the ancient Egyptian religions and worship of the sun God Ra. According to the Bible Jesus Christ spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert where he forsook all earthly temptations. This trial in the desert was an important part of his spiritual training and spiritual mission. Mohammed the prophet of Islam loved the deserts and mountains and often spent time meditating and praying in the silence of the desert.

These are fragments of differentes poemes about the desert:

 "Oh that the desert were my dwelling place,


With only one fair spirit for my minster.


That I might forget the human race,


And hating no one, love her only."

 Lord Byron

 

 

 

"In the Desert of the heart,


Let the healing start;


In the prison of his days,


Teach the free man to praise."

W.H.Auden

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding     

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing     

Memory and desire, stirring     

Dull roots with spring rain.     

        Winter kept us warm, covering             

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding     

A little life with dried tubers.

  

T.S. Eliot 

With thee, in the Desert—

With thee in the thirst—

With thee in the Tamarind wood—

Leopard breathes—at last! 

Emily Dickinson 

I think of the lizards airing their tongues

In the crevice of an extremely small shadow

And the toad guarding his heart's droplet.

The desert is white as a blind man's eye,

Comfortless as salt.  Snake and bird

Doze behind the old maskss of fury.

We swelter like firedogs in the wind.

Sylvia Plath 

In the desert

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

Who, squatting upon the ground,

Held his heart in his hands,

And ate of it.

I said: "Is it good, friend?"

"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;

"But I like it

Because it is bitter,

And because it is my heart 

Stephen Crane 

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

Between stars—on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places. 

Robert Frost 

The lion ate America, bit off her head

and loped off to the golden hills

that's all there is to say

about america except 

that now she's 

lionshit all over the desert. 

Allen Ginsberg  

 

Sun's desert...

The main form of precipitation in a hot desert is rain. But that's only ten inches or less of rain per year.                                       

The Arabian Desert is located in the Arabian PENINSULA. It has a size of 2,300,00 km2. It is covered almost entirely by sand; has some of the most extensive streches of sand dunes in the world. We can find cacia,oleander,saltbush, desert locust, dromedary camel, gazelle, lizard, jackal, oryx. The people that's live here are Nomadic Bedouin tribes have travelled through the Arabian Desert for thousands of years.

Australian Desert. It is formed by Great Sandy, Victoria, Simpson, Gibson and Sturt. It has a size of 2,300,000 km2. Great Sandy, Victoria, and Simpson are sandy; Gibson and Sturt are stony. We find acacia, casuarina tree, eucalyptus, saltbush, spinifex grass, blue-tongued lizard, dingo, fat-tailed mouse, kangaroo, marsupial mole, rabbit-eared bandicoot, sand goanna, spinifex hopping mouse and throny devils . Aborigines have lived in the Australian deserts for over 30,000 years.

Chihuahuan Desert. It's located in the North Central Mexico and Southwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas). It has a size of 455,000 km2. High plateau covered by stony areas and sandy soil. Many mountains and mesas. We find cacti, chihuahuan flax, creosote bush, lechuguilla, mesquite, mexican gold poppy, coyote, diamondback rattlesnake, javelina, kangaroo rat and roadrunners. It's the Largest North American desert. Big Bend National Park located here; more species of birds seen in Big Bend than in any other National Park in the U.S. 

Kalahari Desert is located in the Southwestern Africa. It has a size of 520,000 km2.Covered by sand dunes and gravel plains. We find acacia, aloe, gazelle, gerbil, ground squirrel, hyena, jackel, sandgrouse and springboks. Bushman have lived in the Kalahari for 20,000 years.

 

Thar  desert traverse the countries of India and Pakistan. It has a size of 200,000 km² .  The majority of desert is covered by sand dunes with a rest covered by gravel plains. We find some plants like the acacia, the euphorbias, the grasses, the shrubs, the black buck, the dromedary camel, the great Indian bustard, the Indian spiny-tailed lizard, the jackel and the sandgrouse. Small villages of ten to twenty houses scattered throughout the Thar.

 

Mojave  is located in the Southwestern United States (Arizona, California, Nevada). It has a size of 65,000 km² Covered by sandy soil, gravelly pavement, and salt flats. We find creosote bush, desert sand verbena, joshua tree, mesquite, bighorn sheep, chuckwalla, coyote, jackrabbit, sidewinder and zebra-tailed lizards.  Death Valley located in this desert.

 

Monte is located in Argentina. It has a size of 325,000 km² Covered by sand and soil. We find cardon cactus, creosote bush, paloverde , armadillo, cavy, jaguarundi, puma, tinamou and tuco-tuco. Very similar to the Sonoran Desert.

 

Sahara is located in the Northern Africa. It has a size of 9,100,000km² Covered by mountains, rocky areas, gravel plains, salt flats, huge areas of dunes. Areas in the central sometimes get no rain for years at a time. We find acacia, grasses, tamarisks addax antelope, dorcas gazelle, fennec fox, horned viper, jackal, jerboa, sandgrouse and spiny-yailed lizard. Largest desert in the world. Fewer than 2 million inhabitants (mostly nomads such as the Tuareg). Crossed by Arab caravans since the 10th century. 

 

Sonoran  is located in the Southwestern United States (Arizona, California) and parts of Mexico (Baja Peninsula, Sonora) .It has a size of 312,000 km2. Covered by sand, soil, and gravelly pavement. Gets more rain than any other North American desert. We find agave, coulter's globemallow, creosote bush, desert mariposa lily, mesquite, ocotillo, paloverde, saguaro, coati, elf owl, gila monster, kangaroo rat, pack rat, roadrunner, sidewinder, tarantula . Most complex animal-plant community of any desert. One of the most beautiful deserts in the world.