the.com/gobi
the desert that made silk road traders question their life choices.
means a vast cold desert and steppe region spanning northern china and southern mongolia, formed by rain shadow from the tibetan plateau.
from from mongolian govi, meaning waterless place or semi-desert steppe, a term mongols used long before cartographers borrowed it.
temperature swingcan drop 35 degrees celsius in one day
dinosaur eggsfirst fossilized dinosaur eggs found here 1923
not sandmostly bare rock, not the dune cliche
growing fastdesertification adds thousands of square km yearly
for instance
flaming cliffs — bayanzag site where roy chapman andrews found protoceratops nests
gobi bear — mazaalai, fewer than 40 left, mongolia's only bear species
khongoryn els — singing dunes reaching 300 meters, rare sandy patch