The Kharan Desert ( ur, صحرائے خاران) is a sandy and mountainous desert situated in

Balochistan province Balochistan (; bal, بلۏچستان; ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is the least populated one. It shares land ...

in south-western

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

.The desert covers an area of about 36,000 square kilometers, making it one of the largest deserts in Pakistan. The desert is known for its arid climate and harsh conditions, with high temperatures and very little rainfall. It is home to a variety of

plants Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...

Tree
and animals that are adapted to the desert environment, including the fabled Kharan camel, which is native to the region. This desert was the site of Pakistan's second nuclear test,

Chagai-II Chagai-II is the codename assigned to the second atomic test conducted by Pakistan, carried out on 30 May 1998 in the Kharan Desert in Balochistan Province of Pakistan. ''Chagai-II'' took place two days after Pakistan's first successful test, ...

, which was carried out on 30 May 1998. The land is not fit for agriculture due to low irrigation. The occupation is mainly agriculture and farming. The terrain is mainly dry, grey-brown sand that stretches out.

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

travelled through this region. He had entered the Indus Valley from the historic Khyber Pass and after defeating

Porus Porus or Poros ( grc, Πῶρος ; 326–321 BC) was an ancient Indian king whose territory spanned the region between the Jhelum River (Hydaspes) and Chenab River (Acesines), in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. He is only ment ...

, in the fourth century BC, he made his way back to Babylonia and passed through the Kharan desert (It was known as

Gedrosia Gedrosia (; el, Γεδρωσία) is the Hellenized name of the part of coastal Balochistan that roughly corresponds to today's Makran. In books about Alexander the Great and his successors, the area referred to as Gedrosia runs from the Indus ...

at that time), in an attempt to compare himself against Cyrus the Great who had once passed through the desert. The terrain of the desert is mostly flat, with sand dunes and rocky outcrops. The climate is arid, with high temperatures and very little rainfall. The desert is bounded by the Dasht River to the north and the Chagai Hills to the west. To the south and east, the desert borders the Balochistan Plateau.

References

Deserts of Pakistan {{Pakistan-geo-stub

See also

References