Silence is louder in the desert than it is anywhere else.
In a desert, you can smell a shrub after the rain, and feel the dry, hot wind on your face. You can see the hole where a gerbil is burrowing, and you can touch the warm sand under your feet. But most of the time, in the heart of most deserts, you can hear nothing but the sound of silence.
What makes a place a desert? Most scientists agree that a true desert must average less than 10 inches of rain a year. Desert rainfall is hard to predict and varies widely. It might pour rain one day, and then not rain again for 20 years! Most deserts are much hotter in the daytime than at night.
People tend to think of deserts as miles and miles of sand, but there is more to them. Only about 10 to 20 percent of deserts are covered in sand. Desert landscapes can also include gravel, boulders, mountains, and even ice. Both nomads (people who wander from place to place) and city dwellers live in deserts. Camels are found in some deserts and not in others. Deserts have spiny cactuses and bright poppies.
Let’s take a trip to some of the most mysterious and eerily beautiful places on Earth.
