Dasht-e Margo (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: دشت مارگو), also Dasht-e Mārgow or Dasht-e Margoh, is a desert region in the southern provinces of

Nimruz Nimruz or Nimroz (Dari: ; Balochi: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southwestern part of the country. It lies to the east of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran and north of Balochistan, Pakistan, also borde ...

and

Helmand Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 13 ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. The desert is adjacent to the Dasht-e Khash and

Registan Desert The Registan Desert ( fa, ), also known as Sistan Desert, is an extremely arid plateau region located between Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southeastern Afghanistan. It is a sandy desert consisting of small, red sand hills about high, s ...

. It is the world's 20th largest desert at about 150,000 km² in area with an elevation of 500–700 m. The desert consists mainly of sand masses and rocky-clayish plains with

solonchaks Solonchak ( Russian and Ukrainian: Солончак) is a Reference Soil Group of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). It is a pale or grey soil type found in arid to subhumid, poorly drained conditions. The word is Russian for "sa ...

, takirs, and rarely oases. The desert's name means "Desert of Death" in

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

, with ''dasht'' meaning "

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

" and ''margo'' meaning "death".

References

External links

* Deserts of Afghanistan Geography of Helmand Province Geography of Nimruz Province {{Nimruz-geo-stub