Lut Desert

Iran - Eastern Iran

With dramatically eroded mesas and picturesque landscapes with towering dunes, it’s easy to see why the Dasht-e Lut is considered one of Iran’s most exciting adventure destinations and identified by NASA as the hottest place on Earth.

The desert is speckled with colossal rock formations, some of the tallest dunes in the world, salt plains, sinkholes, forgotten castles, and friendly wolves that roam around at night.

The most impressive of these formations are the yardangs, colossal dunes stacked in a way that they appear corrugated. These features are standard in the western part of the desert. In the east, there is a massive sand sea, due to the strong winds adding to the impressiveness of this place.

The ecosystem of the desert has been vastly unexplored to date because of the unforgiving conditions. Most researchers feel the desert is not worth the effort of studying as it may not sustain any life. However, a team that braved the desert uncovered a fully functioning ecosystem and discovered several insects, desert foxes, and reptiles.

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