Syrian Desert

Information about Syrian Desert

The Syrian Desert (Arabic: بادية الشام), also known as the Syro-Arabian desert, is a combination of steppe and true desert that is located in parts of the nations of Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. Its border on the west is the Orontes Valley, and its border on the east is the Euphrates. In the north, the desert gives way to the more fertile areas of north-central Syria. In the south, it runs into the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. Many oases exist in the Syrian Desert such as Palmyra. Damascus is also located on an oasis. The desert's remarkable landscape was formed by lava flows from the volcanic region of the Jebel Druze in southern Syria. The desert was historically inhabited by bedouin tribes, and many tribes still remain in the region, their members living mainly in towns and settlements built near oases. Some bedouin still maintain their traditional way of life in the desert.

Safaitic inscriptions, proto-Arabic texts written by literate bedouin, are found throughout the Syrian Desert. These date approximately from the 1st century B.C. to the 4th century A.D.

Iraq War

During the war in Iraq the desert served as a major supply line for the Iraqi insurgents, with the Iraq portion of the desert becoming a primary stronghold of the Sunni insurgents operating in the Al Anbar Governorate. Particularly after the Coalition capture of Fallujah during Operation Phantom Fury. A series of Coalition military operations were relatively ineffective at removing the insurgent presence in the Desert. However as the insurgents began to gain control of the surrounding areas the importance of the Syrian desert as a center of operations was believed to have lessened. By September 2006 insurgents had gained control of virtually all of the Anbar Governorate and had moved most of their forces equipment and leaders further east to insurgent controlled cities near the Euphrates river, nevertheless the Syrian Desert remains one of the primary routes for smuggling equipment due to its location near the Syrian border. [1][2] [3] [4][5]

Deserts over 50 000 km²

Rank Desert’s Name Area
(km²) Area
(sq mi) Country/Countries
..... Click the link for more information.

The ad-Dahna Desert is the central division of the Arabian Desert. It is a corridor of sandy terrain that connects the large an-Nafud desert to the Rub' al-Khali.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopdia.
..... Click the link for more information.

The Alvord Desert is a desert located in Harney County, in southeastern Oregon in the western United States. It is roughly southeast of Steens Mountain. The Alvord Desert is a 12 by 7 mile playa, a dry lake bed, and averages 7 inches of rain a year.
..... Click the link for more information.

Arabian Desert is a vast desert wilderness stretching from Yemen to the Persian Gulf and Oman to Jordan and Iraq. It occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula with an area of 2,330,000 square kilometers (900,000 mi²)^[4].
..... Click the link for more information.

The Aral Karakum desert lies north of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. Area: 40,000 km².

..... Click the link for more information.

Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, extending 966 km (600 mi) between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is created by the rain shadow of the Andes east of the desert.
..... Click the link for more information.

The Baja California desert is a Desert ecoregion of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula.

Setting

The ecoregion covers 77,700 square kilometers (30,000 square miles), and includes most of the Peninsula's western slope.
..... Click the link for more information.

Chihuahuan Desert is a desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. On the U.S. side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and southern New Mexico, Texas west of the Pecos River and southeastern Arizona; south of the border, it covers the northern half of the Mexican state
..... Click the link for more information.

Dasht-e Kavir (دشت كوير in Persian), also known as Kavir-e Namak or Great Salt Desert is a large desert lying in the middle of the Iranian Plateau.
..... Click the link for more information.

Dasht-e Lut, also spelled Dasht-i-Lut, is a large salt desert in southeastern Iran.

Iran is climatically part of the Afro-Asian belt of deserts that stretch from the Cape Verde islands off West Africa all the way to Mongolia near Beijing, China.
..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

Herod_Archelaus

iPedia Free Information Center