Can you imagine silence being loud? A desert can be so quiet, you hear the silence.
In a desert, you can feel the dry, hot wind on your face and smell the fragrance of a plant after the rain. You can see the hole a gerbil is digging, and touch the warm sand. But most of the time, in the heart of most deserts, you can hear nothing but the sound of silence.
Why is a place called a desert? Most scientists say a true desert must average less than 10 inches of rain a year. It is hard to know when rain will fall in the desert. One day, rain might pour down. Then it might not rain again for 20 years! Most deserts are much hotter in daytime than at night.
Do you think of deserts as miles of rolling sand? Many people do, but deserts are very varied. Sand covers only about 10 to 20 percent of them. Deserts have many other landscapes – gravel, boulders, mountains, and even ice. They are home to both nomads (people who wander from place to place) and city people. Some deserts have camels, and some do not. Deserts have both spiny cactuses and bright poppies.
Let’s go now and visit some deserts. They are among the most mysterious and weirdly beautiful places on Earth.