Globe Trotting: The Gobi Desert

“The Gobi is one of the greatest deserts in the world. A stripe stretching for more than 1,500 kilometres from the Northern part of China to South-Eastern Mongolia occupies the territory bigger than UK, France, Spain and Portugal taken all together — 1,3 million square kilometres.

The Mongolian word “Govi” means “Waterless Place”, but the Gobi is not only the desert — its terrain is rather diverse. High dunes of drifting sands cover only 3% of the Gobi territory. The main part of its lands is occupied by broad stony and clay valleys, huge prairies, picturesque rocky mountains, vast basins with rare oases, hillocky areas, salt marshes, canyons… The climate of the Gobi is sharply continental. Cross-seasonal temperature variations are extreme and can be compared to the ones of the “Pole of Cold” in Oymyakon, Yakutia. The winter is rather cold (up to -50℃) with strong gusts of wind and the summer is extremely hot (up to +55℃).”

Source: Gobi 360 https://www.airpano.com/360photo/gobi-mongolia/

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