Located in the South-east of Iran, Lut Desert is an exemplar of this geographical feature involving a variety of desert landforms in a comparatively small area. It located in Provinces of South Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan and Kerman. Kaluts or yardang that are massive corrugated ridges are the most touristic attraction of the west of Lut Desert and in the east of the desert ergs and varied huge dunes prevail.

Gandom Beryan is a vast plateau of the Lut Desert covered in dark lava that according to NASA often records the highest earth temperature of around 70°C. Gandom Beryan meaning toasted wheat in Farsi probably gained its name when a load of wheat left in the region was scorched by heat after few days.

Mighty wind between June and October creates massive and awe-inspiring Kaluts. Kaluts of Shahdad are so stunning that resemble an imaginary city from a perspective outlook. Sunset and dawn offer a breathtaking view of these of natural castles of shimmering golden sands. The Kaluts of the Lut Desert reach to 155 meters high and are amongst the highest yardangs on the earth.

Lut Desert is also well-known for its active and moving dunes that at some point soar to 500 meters. Lut houses various forms of dunes such as linear-shaped, crescentic-shaped, star-shaped, and funnel-shaped dunes beside nebkas with the shield of plants. Similar to its yardangs, dunes, and nebkas of the Lut are of the highest of their kind on the earth.

The Desert also contains a wide variety of salt landforms such as playa or salt pans with polygonal fractured crusts, white crystalline riverbeds, gypsum domes, tepee fractured salt crusts, salt karren, and small salt blisters. Alongside salty features, there are some other desert landforms in Lut including hamada that is a type of stony desert pavement, bajada or alluvial fans, and gullied badlands. Besides, despite the low precipitation rate and harsh weather conditions, resistant flora and fauna live in this arid desert.

The post Dasht-e Lut (Lut Desert) appeared first on Persia Advisor.

Marsh Crocodile (Gando) – Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran
Photo by Shayan Ghiaseddin

The main habitat of marsh crocodile is in the furthermost areas of southeast of Iran, in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. The approximate range is from Sarbaz River and Bahoukalat up to Oman Sea and it can be found in some areas of Chabahar, Sarbaz and Nikshahr counties as well, the region is known as Gando protected area (Bahoukalat).

The marsh crocodile is a carnivorous reptile and ambush hunter, however, the villagers have no fear of dealing with it.

The height of this Iranian crocodile is up to 4 meters but it is mostly about 2.5 to 3 meters. The male crocodile grows larger than female one. The maturity age for the female crocodile is 8 years old and for the male one is 10 years old.

Marsh Crocodile (Gando) – Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran
Photo by Shayan Ghiaseddin

The laying time is approximately at the beginning of the spring. The average number of eggs is about 25 ones and they take about 50 to 75 days to hatch.

Apart from the natural resources of water, the natives of Baluchestan region create some pools in the village to preserve the water obtained from rain, these pools are called “Hootak”. The crocodiles use these artificial ponds as their habitat. The natives of Baluchestan believe that crocodile is the symbol of water availability and its cleanness and hence they respect this reptile.

The post Marsh Crocodile (Gando) appeared first on Persia Advisor.