Twenty-three of these sites are assigned to the Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age. As a result, eighty-seven ancient sites dating from the fifth millennium BC to the late Islamic era were identified. Recently, an extensive archaeological survey was conducted on the eastern flank of Kerman range and close to the western fringes of Lut Desert. The Lut area is an important region for Iranian archaeology. And on the eastern side, there was a giant ancient city of Shahr-i-Sokhta. The ancient city of Shahdad was located on the western edge of the Lut desert. Archaeology Īround 2500 BC, a flourishing civilization existed in this area. Evaporites can be observed during hot periods. Geology Īccording to one study, more than half of the desert's surface is covered by volcanic rocks. The southeast is a vast expanse of sand, like a Saharan erg, with dunes 300 metres (980 ft) high, among the tallest in the world. This area is also riddled with ravines and sinkholes. In contrast, the center has been sculpted by the wind into a series of parallel ridges and furrows, extending over 150 km (93 mi) and reaching 75 metres (246 ft) in height. The eastern part of Dasht-e Lut is a low plateau covered with salt flats with lowest elevations around 110 m above sea level (30.398609 N, 58.493041 E). During the spring wet season, water briefly flows down from the Kerman mountains, but it soon dries up, leaving behind only rocks, sand, and salt. The area of the desert is about 51,800 square kilometres (20,000 sq mi), the largest in Iran after Dasht-e Kavir. Dasht-e Lut is one of the largest of these desert basins, 480 kilometers (300 mi) long and 320 kilometers (200 mi) wide, and is considered to be one of the driest places on Earth. Iran's geography consists of a plateau surrounded by mountains and divided into drainage basins. The patchy, elongated, light-colored feature in the foreground (parallel to the mountain range) is the northernmost of the Dasht dry lakes that stretch southward 300 kilometers (190 mi). Iran is climatically part of the Afro-Asian belt of deserts, which stretches from Mauritania all the way to Mongolia. This image was acquired by Envisat’s MERIS instrument on 2 April 2012 and is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.Yardangs in Lut Desert, Kerman Province, Iran Iran experiences frequent tectonic activity as several major fault lines cross the country. In the lower-left we can see the white, snow-capped Jebal Barez mountains.Ī major earthquake struck about 100 km east of the snow-caps in 2003, its epicentre near the ancient city of Bam (lower-central portion of image). But irrigation expansion combined with droughts have caused the water levels in these wetlands to drop significantly – and some years even dry up. With their arid surroundings, the wetlands in this border region have been a major source of food and fresh water for thousands of years, as well as an important stop for migratory birds. In the upper-right section we can see a light green, shallow body of water that straddles Iran’s border with Afghanistan. The darker area to the east is an extent of massive sand dunes, some reaching up to 300 m tall. The light area in the centre of the image are the long, parallel wind-carved ridges and furrows. The highest land surface temperature ever recorded was in the Lut Desert in 2005 at 70.7✬, as measured by NASA’s Aqua satellite. The desert is often called the ‘hottest place on Earth’ as satellites measured record surface temperatures there for several years. The Dasht-e Lut salt desert in southeast Iran is captured in this Envisat image.
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