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***** Location: Yemen
***** Season: Topic
***** Category: Earth


A desert is a landscape form or region that receives very little precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas that receive an average annual precipitation of less than 250 mm (10 in).


English desert and its Romance cognates (including Italian deserto, French désert and Spanish desierto) all come from the Latin desertum, which means "an unpopulated place". This in turn is derived from the Egyptian word dSr.t, which literally means "red land" and refers to the desert. The correlation between aridity and sparse population is complex and dynamic, varying by culture, era, and technologies, and thus the use of the word desert can cause confusion.

In English prior to the 20th century, desert was often used in the sense of "unpopulated area", without specific reference to aridity; but today the word is most often used in its climate-science sense (an area of low precipitation)—and a desert may be quite heavily populated, with millions of inhabitants. Phrases such as "desert island" and "Great American Desert" in previous centuries did not necessarily imply sand or aridity; their focus was the sparse population. But the connotation of a hot, parched, sandy place often influences today's popular interpretation of those phrases.

© More in the WIKIPEDIA !


Yemen is located on the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Rub al-Khali of Yemen is the largest sand desert in the world.

CLICK for landscape photos

Shibam, a city in the desert

CLICK for more photos
... www.chris-kutschera.com


Desert Plants

Many small plants of interest grow in Yemen. The Rub al-Khali desert blooms after rain, acacia trees and prickly pear cactus becoming a blaze of colour when in flower. The smaller euphorbias in scrub areas and the large candelabra euphorbias from the southern slopes of the Sumara Pass to Taiz are a fine sight when in flower, as is the white lily (Crinum yemense); but the plant that really stands out is the desert rose (Adenium obesum). Unfortunately trees are rare in northern Yemen because so many have been cut down and used for firewood.

More information :
... www.arabianwildlife.com

Worldwide use





sabaku　さぶく　砂漠

. Yellow sand from the Gobi desert 黄砂 koosa .



. Steppe, Mongolian-Manchurian steppe .

Things found on the way


sunset to stare at
even for camels..

Heike Gewi, Yemen, January 2008

Related words


***** . Tundra - a one-word haiku ? .



Anonymous said...

desert snowfall-
the saguaro's
white shoulders

—Melissa Spurr

desert sentinel
reaching for the heavens
a coat of white


Heike Gewi said...

named Empty Quarter
continuing life..
white lily

Gabi Greve . Details are here . said...

There are some deserts close to the oceans where they get humidity
almost every early morning, when the moisture from the sea is blown
toward the land. Animals and plants have special abilities to get the
dew from this phenomenon to survive during the day. I remember one
beetle standing upside down, wings spread, to catch the dew and lead
it into its tiny mouth ...

Mostly in South America, if memory serves right. And some in the
sourthern parts of Africa.

morning dew ...
even the desert
comes alive

Read more in the LINK.
Namib Desert Beetle-based Dune Dew Collectors