It is true that there are two large deserts in Iran, world’s 26th largest desert Dasht-e Kavir, and world’s 27th largest Dasht-e Lut, or the Lut Desert, meaning »The Empty Plain« or even »The Plain of Desolation« in Persian, the hottest place on our planet Earth. Go to the cities, the people said, there is nothing but cities, people said, those of course who went to Iran, more exactly, went just to the cities like most tourists do. I have stumbled upon this belief, false opinion, more than once, especially from people who never set foot out of their hometown, let alone the Persian territories, when planning our journey. What could that be? Sand for sure, but… Dunes? Thus I discovered the existence of the 10.000 square kilometres large great erg or the Rig-e Yalan in the Dasht-e Lut desert, its dunes reaching as high as 500 meters above the level of the plain. The Kalouts formations I heard of from other travellers were easily discernible on the screen, an area measuring approximately 130 by 60 kilometres, then some grey plains, and then, as if mirroring the yardang field, brown-orange in colour, apparently immense expanse of sand, and after it, the mountains and the infamous city of Zahedan, Pakistani border not much further on. In the planning stages of our Iran 2018 expedition and defining our route around the Kalouts, those formidable yardangs, rocks gnawed upon by wind, sand and time, but nevertheless still standing, I became aware of some weird formations on the Google Earth satellite imagery more than hundred kilometres east of Shahdad. The difficult part was not to wander any deeper and further. All the problems with Mosafer – were they actually a precaution to save us from boastering in Lut desert? I had the plan laid down for us to barely glimpse at dunes, just to get the taste of them, to praise them a little… and that was not a difficult part to achieve. This ecoregion represents a large central, desert area lying between other basins with more unique faunas.I sometimes wonder, often in retrospective, whether things have their underlying, deeper meaning. Transcaspian marinka ( Schizothorax pelzami) is the westernmost representative of the schizothoracines, more frequently found in higher mountain ranges of the Himalayas. There are no known described endemic species. True sand deserts occur at altitudes between 500 – 1200 m. Terrestrial habitats range from halophytic communities and sagebrush ( Artemisia) steppes to sand dunes and gravel deserts. The two major basins are the Dasht-e Kavir in the north and the Dasht-e Lut in the south. The ecoregion covers a vast area of rocky desert and semi-desert with salt flats or playas that act as large terminal sumps. Flash floods occur after heavy rainfall in winter over a denuded or desert landscape. Rivers descending into the plateau from the surrounding mountain ranges carry high levels of soluble salts. Small rivers (really streams), springs, and qanats provide the fresh waters in this ecoregion. It has an average altitude over 500 m, surrounded by mountains that exceed 4000 m in some places. The Kavir & Lut Deserts ecoregion comprises a large part of the Iranian Plateau. Ecoregions surrounding it include the Turan Plain to the north Caspian Highlands, Namak, Esfahan, and Upper Tigris & Euphrates to the west Northern Hormuz Drainages and Baluchistan to the south and Helmand-Sistan and Upper Amu Darya to the east. It is bounded by the Elburz Mountains to the north and Zagros Mountains to the southwest. This ecoregion lies on the Iranian Plateau, and encompasses the Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert) and Dasht-e Lut (Emptiness Desert).
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