Deserts of the World “M...-N...-”
for environmental, ecology, and geography educators & classrooms, travelers.

The Maine Desert was originally the result of soil erosion caused by poor farming practices such as clearing the land and failure to rotate crops. It is located near Freeport, Maine.

A glacial silt, similar to sand but not actual sand, is kept exposed by carefully removing vegetation for the purpose of maintaining a natural curiosity as a tourist attraction.

The Mojave Desert covers portions of California, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Named for the Mohave Indians (both spellings are correct), the boundaries of the Mohave are indicated by the presence of Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia), whose uplifted branches reminded the Mormon pioneers of the biblical figure Joshua.

Death Valley, the lowest & hottest place in North America, is in the Mohave, as is Las Vegas, NV.

There is the opinion the Mojave is not a separate desert but a transitional environment between the Great Basin Desert to the north and the Sonoran Desert to the south and east.

The Namib Desert in Namibia and southwest Angola forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park.

The Namib Desert is noted for its tall orange sand dunes is one of the oldest deserts in the world. The orange sand is the result of sand oxidizing like rusty metal for at least 55 million years.

The Negev Desert makes up more than 55% of Israel's land area. The name Negev is from the Hebrew root word “dry”.

Because of its inhospitable environment the isolation of the Negev has made it home to a hazardous infrastructure, which includes a nuclear reactor, 22 agro and petrochemical factories, an oil terminal, closed military zones of nuclear weapons development, quarries, a toxic waste incinerator, cell towers, a power plant, several airports, a prison, and 2 rivers of open sewage. The Negev Desert and surrounding area have become the center of the Israeli solar industry.

The Nubian Desert, part of the Sahara, is located between the Nile River and the Red Sea.

The Nabta Playa region has numerous archaeological sites dating to somewhere between the 10th and 8th millennia BC when the area had a much different climate.

• Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara: Volume 1: The Archaeology of Nabta Playa