Arabian Desert

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Lore & Background

The sands are predominantly silicates, composed of 80 to 90% quartz and the remainder feldspar, whose iron oxide-coated grains color the sands orange, purple, and red.

Reader's Guide

The Arabian Desert ecoregion has little biodiversity, although a few endemic plants grow there. Many species, such as the striped hyena, jackal, and honey badger, have died out as a result of hunting, habitat destruction, overgrazing by livestock, off-road driving, and human encroachment. Other species, such as the Arabian sand gazelle, have been successfully re-introduced and are protected at reserves. The conservation status of the desert is critical/endangered. Natural resources include oil, natural gas, phosphates, and sulfur. The area is home to several different cultures, languages, and peoples, with Islam as the predominant faith. The major ethnic group is the Arabs, whose primary language is Arabic.

Did You Know?

• The Gobi Desert is the sixth-largest desert in the world.
• The name 'Gobi' comes from the Mongolian word Gov', meaning 'dryland'.
• The first dinosaur eggs ever discovered were found in the Gobi in 1923—twenty-six specimens averaging 23 centimetres in length.
• Winter temperatures in the Gobi can plunge to −40 °C, while summer highs can reach 45 °C.
• The Gobi is expanding through desertification, with roughly 3,600 square kilometres of Chinese grassland overtaken each year.

Geography & Physical Character

Spanning roughly 1,295,000 square kilometres, the Gobi ranks as the sixth-largest desert on Earth, stretching 1,600 kilometres from southwest to northeast and 800 kilometres from north to south. Its western breadth is greatest along the corridor between Lake Bosten and the Lop Nor basin. The region extends eastward from the Pamir foothills all the way to the Greater Khingan range near Manchuria, while its northern edge is defined by the Altay, Sayan, and Yablonoi ranges and its southern boundary by the Kunlun, Altyn-Tagh, and Qilian chains that cap the Tibetan Plateau. Despite its desert label, much of the Gobi is not sandy at all; instead, vast stretches of exposed bare rock dominate the landscape. This rocky character is reflected in its very name: the Mongolian word Gov' simply means 'dryland,' while the borrowed Chinese term gēbì specifically denotes rocky, semi-arid terrain rather than the dune seas one might picture. Some geographers even argue that the western Tarim basin and the Lop Nor and Hami deserts constitute a separate entity, the Taklamakan Desert, distinct from the Gobi proper.

Climate & Temperature Extremes

Far from the scorching heat one associates with tropical deserts, the Gobi is fundamentally a cold desert where frost blankets the dunes and snowfall is no rarity. Sitting on a plateau between roughly 910 and 1,520 metres above sea level, the region endures a brutally wide thermal range: winter temperatures can plunge to −40 °C while summer highs climb to 45 °C, and swings of 35 °C within a single 24-hour period are not unusual. In southern Mongolia, a recorded low of −32.8 °C stands in stark contrast to the 37 °C July heat documented in Alxa, Inner Mongolia. Annual rainfall averages a meagre 194 mm, with most of it arriving in summer, while winter moisture comes largely as wind-blown snow drifting in from the Siberian Steppes. The Siberian anticyclone, at its strongest during the cold months, locks in extreme dryness, and the northern reaches grow so cold and arid that little vegetation can take hold. Spring and early summer bring icy dust storms and snow squalls, while the southeast monsoon delivers modest moisture only to the far southeastern fringes.

Fossil Heritage & Living Ecology

Few deserts on Earth have yielded as remarkable a palaeontological record as the Gobi. In 1923, the first dinosaur eggs ever discovered were unearthed here—twenty-six specimens averaging 23 centimetres in length. The Nemegt Basin in northwestern Mongolia remains a treasure trove, producing early mammals, additional egg clutches, and prehistoric stone tools dating back roughly 100,000 years. Beyond its deep past, the desert sustains a surprising array of wildlife. Endemic or near-endemic residents include the black-tailed gazelle, the marbled polecat, the wild Bactrian camel, the Mongolian wild ass, and sandplovers, while snow leopards, Gobi bears, and wolves make occasional forays into the region. Lizards are particularly well represented, with around thirty species clustered along the southern Mongolian border. The dominant plant life consists of drought-tolerant shrubs such as gray sparrow's saltwort, gray sagebrush, and low grasses like needle grass and bridlegrass, though livestock grazing has steadily reduced their cover. Protected areas including Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park and the Great Gobi A and B Strictly Protected Areas now shield portions of this fragile ecosystem.

Desertification & the Fight to Halt It

The Gobi is not a static landscape; its boundaries are in constant flux, and in recent decades the desert has been encroaching on surrounding grasslands at an alarming pace. Along the southern edge, roughly 3,600 square kilometres of Chinese grassland are swallowed each year, and dust storms grew markedly more frequent between 1996 and 2016, inflicting further damage on China's agricultural economy. The drivers are both natural and human: deforestation, overgrazing, water-resource depletion, and broader climate change all accelerate the process. In Mongolia, nomadic herders' goats, raised for cashmere, have degraded grasslands, while off-road vehicles and livestock trampling compound the damage, particularly in the wetter eastern Gobi. In response, China launched the Three-North Shelter Forest Program—often called the Green Great Wall—in 1978, a massive tree-planting initiative running through 2050 that aims to reverse desertification by establishing aspen and other fast-growing species across 36.5 million hectares in 551 counties spanning twelve northern provinces. Some localized successes have been recorded, and in certain areas the advance of the desert has been slowed or even partially reversed, though the overall challenge remains formidable.