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Geography of The Middle East & North Africa:Deserts

The Atlas MountainsMountain Ranges:

The Atlas Mountains & The RifThe PonticsThe Taurus MountainsThe Elburz & Zagros MountainsMount Lebanon & The Anti-Lebanon MountainsMount Sinai,

Deserts:

The Sahara DesertThe Arabian DesertThe Syrian DesertDasht-e Kavir & Dasht-e Lut

The Sahara Desert

The Arabian Desert

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertThe Arabian Desert is a vast desert wilderness stretching from Yemen to the Arabian/Persian Gulf and Oman and Jordan and Iraq.

It occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula with an area of 2, 300,000 square km.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertGeological features of the Arabian Desert include:

Ad-Dahna desert corridorAn Nefud desertRub al KhaliThe Tuwayk escarpmentUmm al SamimWahibi sands of Oman

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertThe Ad-Dahna desert is a corridor of sandy terrain forming a bow-like shape that connects an-Nafud desert in the north to Rubal-Khali in the south.

Its length is more than 1000m siding Tuwaiq Mountains from the east and does not exceed 80km in width.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian Desert

It is formed of high sand dunes spreading horizontally which are called veins, mostly red in colour since it contains Ion oxides.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertThe Al-Nefud or The Nefud is a desert in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula, occupying a great oval depression. It is 290km long and 225km wide, with an area of 103,600 square kilometres.

The Nefud is an erg (sand sea), noted for its violent winds, which account for the crescent shaped dunes.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertRain comes once or twice a year. In some lowland areas, namely those near the Hejaz Mountains, there are oases where dates, vegetables, barley and fruits are grown.

The Nefud is connected to the Rub al-Khali, a corridor of gravel plains and sand dunes.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertThe Rub al Khali or Empty Quarter is one of the largest sand deserts in the world. It is 1,000km long and 500km wide.

The terrain is covered with sand dunes with heights up to 250m, interspersed with gravel and gypsum plains. The sand is reddish in colour due to the presence of feldspar.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertGeologically it is rich in oil. Vast oil reserves have been discovered under the sand dunes.

Shaybah, in the middle of the desert is a major Arab light crude oil producing site. Also Ghawwar Field, the largest oil field in the world, extends southwards into the innermost parts of the Empty Quarter.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertThe Tuwaiq is a narrow escarpment that cuts through the plateau of Nejd in central Arabia, running approximately 800km from the southern border of Al-Qasim in the north, to the northern edge of the Empty Quarter desert near Wadi ad-Dawasir in the south.

It is a region of limestone cliffs, plateaux and canyons.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian Desert

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertThe Umm al Samim is a quicksand area on the eastern edge of the Rub alKhali desert. The waters drain into this brackish closed basin off the Omani mountains and the wadi of the Rub alKhali.

The Umm al Samim is a salt marsh with a solid looking crust that can be treacherous when broken through. There is little vegetation.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian DesertThe Wahibi Sands are a region of desert in Oman, named after the Wahibi tribe (bedouin).

The upper area contains mega-ridge sand systems on a north-south line that are believed to have been created by monsoons.

The dunes of the north, measure up to 100 m high, with peaks accumulating in the areas just below the strongest wind speeds, where declining velocity wind deposited sands.

The Atlas MountainsThe Arabian Desertg

The Syrian Desert

The Atlas MountainsThe Syrian DesertThe Syrian desert or the Syro-Arabian Desert is a combination of a steppe and true desert. It is located in the northern Arabian Peninsula and covers 200,00 square miles.

It is part of the al-Hamad which covers portions of Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Its border on the east is with the Euphrates. In the north, the desert gives way to the more fertile areas of north Syria. In the south, it runs into the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula.

The Atlas MountainsThe Syrian DesertMany oases exist in the Syrian Desert such as the ancient city of Palmyra and Damascas.

The Atlas MountainsThe Syrian DesertThe desert was historically occupied by the bedouin tribes, and many tribes still remain in the region, their members living mainly in the towns and settlements built near the oasis.

Some bedouin maintain their traditional way of life in the desert. Safaitic inscriptions (proto-Arabic) are found in throughout the desert, dating from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD.

The Atlas Mountain RangeDasht-e Kavir

The Dasht-e Kavir

The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about 2,500km through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

It separates the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert.

The Atlas MountainsThe Dasht-e KavirThe Dasht-e Kavir or The Great Salt Desert is a large desert lying in the middle of the Iranian Plateau. It is about 800km and 230km wide with a total surface area of about 77,600 square km.

The area of the desert stretches from the Elburz Mountains in the north west to the Dasht-e Lut in the south east.

It is named after the salt marshes (kavirs) located here.

The Atlas MountainsThe Dasht-e KavirThe extreme temperature and many storms create erosion which makes it impossible to cultivate the lands. The desert is almost uninhabited.

In the west of the desert, a salt lake called Darya-ye Namak (1800km squared) can be found, but most of the surface area is dry. The lake reaches a depth between 45 cm to 1 metre.

The Dasht-e Lut

The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about 2,500km through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

It separates the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert.

The Atlas MountainsThe Dasht-e LutThe Dasht-e Lut or the Desert of Emptiness is a large salt desert in southeastern Iran.

It is one of the largest desert basins in Iran, 480km long and 320km wide and is considered one of the driest place in the world.

Land surface temperatures can reach 70.7 degrees C.

The Atlas MountainsThe Dasht-e Lut

The eastern part of the Dasht-e Lut is a low plateau covered with salt flats.

The Atlas MountainsThe Dasht-e Lut

The centre has been sculpted by wind into a series of parallel ridges and furrows, extending over 150km and reaching 75km in height. This area is full of ravines and sinkholes.

The southeast is a vast expanse of sand with dunes 300m high.

Acknowledgements

www.euratlas.comwww.wikipedia.com