Zzyzx, California

Zzyzx is the last word listed in a dictionary! Just kidding — it definitely will not appear in any dictionary, but it is a whimsical “word” nonetheless! Previously known as Soda Springs and sitting at an elevation of approximately 933 feet, Zzyzx is the name of a sparsely populated unincorporated community found in the Mohave Desert. It is located in central San Bernardino County off the Zzyzx Road exit along Interstate 15. Zzyzx is pronounced as zye zix; zye sounds like the xy in xylophone, while zix rhymes with the number six. This barely existing community is home to the Desert Studies Center, Soda Dry Lake salt flat, Lake Tuendae, and abandoned structures of the former Zzyzx Springs health spa and resort. Managed by California State University, the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx is a place compiling research about climate, biology, archaeology, etc. in desert environments. The facility’s website is fullerton.edu/dsc (↗).

Founded by Curtis Howe Springer in 1944, the Zzyzx Springs health spa and resort was a two-story building with 60 rooms inside; this locale included a pool shaped like a cross and a boiler-heated “natural hot spring bath.” The town of Soda Springs was renamed to Zzyzx in the 1940s by Curtis, who joked that zzyzx is the last word listed in a dictionary! According to Jeopardy! game show winner and Maphead author Ken Jennings, Mr. Springer chose the name as an onomatopoeia that “sounded like sleep,” encouraging visitors to relax and unwind. Curtis’ capitalist explanation: the attention-grabbing name is a promotional gimmick to attract visitors to the area!

Mr. Springer proposed an artificial lake known as Lake Tuendae — which currently provides a home for an endangered fish species, the Mohave tui chub (Siphateles bicolor mohavensis). His resort’s short-lived success allowed Zzyzx to have other amenities, including a chapel, “Zyport” airstrip landing, radio broadcasting studio (Curtis was a Los Angeles radio deejay), and a street named Boulevard of Dreams lined with various homes including Curtis’ palace. Curtis claimed to offer miracle cures based on the area’s mineral water — at least providing oasis-like refreshments to patrons visiting the parched desert.

The resort was forced to close in the early 1970s by the federal government. Although Curtis owned a claim for mining rights, he did not properly acquire the federal land onto which the resort was built! Despite this legal quandary, the United States Board on Geographic Names met in June 1984 and officially approved Zzyzx for the town and Zzyzx Spring for a local stream. Both features are listed under Docket List 285 along with the Dumont Dunes landform in San Bernardino County. Because of this decision, Zzyzx lives on; Curtis’ legacy is still found “on the map” and on an Interstate exit sign!

Largest Desert in the World? Not the Sahara!

Conventional wisdom holds that the Sahara Desert spanning across North Africa is the world's largest desert. That is true if you only consider non-polar deserts! We would need to wear cozy parkas and to shield our skin from bitter-cold temperatures in order to walk on what truly is the world's largest desert: the Antarctic Polar Desert. This vast feature encompasses about 14,245,000 km² and 5,500,000 mi² of land.

Switching from the South Pole to the North one, we should know that the second-largest desert is the Arctic Polar Desert. Covering areas of Québec (extreme northern part), the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon (CANADA), Greenland (DENMARK), FINLAND, NORWAY, RUSSIA, SWEDEN, Alaska (UNITED STATES), the Arctic Polar Desert boasts an area of approximately 14,000,000 km² and 5,400,000 mi². Finally, the Sahara Desert is in 3rd place: 9,200,000 km² and 3,550,000 mi².

Dunes in the Ad Dahna Desert

About 80 kilometers northeast of Riyadh, the Ad Dahnā’ (Dahana) desert forms a boomerang in northeastern SAUDI ARABIA. According to the interactive map hosted on the GeoNames website (↗), over ninety (90) rippling dunes in the Ad Dahnā’ desert have names. Some of these dunes include Adh Dhaylīyah, Al Hidb al Qur’, Dughayyimat al Humrānī, ‘Irq ‘Anz, ‘Irq ash Shāwīyah, ‘Irq Sirū, ‘Irq Widd, Jadhmā’ Jahām, Jadhmā’ Mahraqah, Jaww Hijlān, Qira‘at ‘Imir, Umm al ‘Izām, ‘Urayq al Khalf, ‘Urūq al Jadhm, Zibārat Julayyil, Zibārat Munīfah, Zibārat Nājī, Zibārat Şaffāqah, and Zibāyir ar Ruwaykib. Searching for "Ad Dahna" images on your favorite search engine brings up typical desert-photo subjects: camels, lizards, and of course lots of orange-tinted sand!

Dasht-e Kavir, the Great Salt Desert

In northeast IRAN lies Dasht-e Kavir, aptly named the Great Salt Desert because of its salt deposits and salt dome formations. According to the NASA Earth Observatory which provides a detailed satellite image of Dasht-e Kavir, an ancient ocean formerly inhabited the area where Dasht-e Kavir currently is. As it evaporated, the water's salts remained on land and created a desert land with an abundance of salt. At the western edge of this desert lies the Kavir National Park and Lake Namak. Communities surrounding Dasht-e Kavir include Ārādān, Jandaq, Jow Khvāh, Khvor, Robāţ-e Khān, Semnān, Ţabas, and Ţorūd.

Geographic Location
Most of Dasht-e Kavir is found in northern Eşfahān, extreme southwestern Khorāsān, southern Semnān, and northern Yadz provinces. There is a western extension extending westward into Tehrān province (where Iran's capital, Tehrān, is located), and a small, isolated section of the desert exists at the Eşfahān-Yadz border. Previously, Khorāsān possessed a larger section of the Dasht-e Kavir until Yadz gained more of Khorāsān's territory. Interestingly, Google Maps shows a strange border that is not attached to Khorāsān province, probably because Google Maps wants to make sure the new boundary is correct. However, National Geographic's MapMaker Interactive shows the new borders of Khorāsān and Yadz provinces. National Geographic is known for its accurate cartographic expertise stemming from its research on border alterations and disputes, so it is likely that the MapMaker Interactive boundary is correct. Finally, the desert is approximately 200 kilometers and 300 miles east-southeast of Iran's capital.

Topographically Diverse Chile

CHILE, being the long and skinny country along South America's western coast bordering the Pacific Ocean, is a land of extremes as far as geology, climate, and elevation goes. The eastern border with Argentina boasts the Andes Mountains, a tall mountain range with several peaks with elevations over 20,000 feet. While not all mountain ranges have a cold climate, this one does; of course, the tall peaks have snow on them. Meanwhile, an extremely hot and dry desert - Atacama Desert - stretches down the coastline of northern Chile and west of the Andes range. It only receives about 0.04 inches of rain a year, undoubtedly the lowest amount in the world; even the Sahara typically receives a little more rain - only about 0.1, but still more than the Atacama Desert. Southern Chile is relatively low in elevation, and its climate is cool and wet. You would typically find forests and land for grazing here. Central Chile is home to a Mediterranean temperate climate that is perfect for agriculture. Crops grown here include grapes and other fruits, corn, wheat, bean, potatoes, and sugar beets.

Physical Features of Saudi Arabia

SAUDI ARABIA is certainly known for its arid climate and deserts, like the Rub' al Khali (also known as the Empty Quarter) in the southern part of largest country on the Arabian Peninsula. It also features quite a lot of plateaus and some mountain ranges, including Jabal al Hijaz (Hejaz) along the western coast, the Najd (Nejd) uplands in central Saudi Arabia, and Jabal Shammar mountain range in the northern part of Saudi Arabia. Learn more by visiting my Saudi Arabia post!

First African Country to Constitutionally Protect Land

NAMIBIA, located in Southern Africa, was the first country in Africa including the need to protect the local environment in its constitution. Around 14% of Namibia's land is reserved, including the coastal areas of the Namib Desert.

Credit: Rosenberg, Matthew T., and Jennifer E. Rosenberg. The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Book. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002.

Taklimakan Desert

The Taklimakan Desert, which is surrounded by mountain ranges, is located in western CHINA. Looking in an atlas or on a map, you would see that it is sparsely populated. The mountain ranges that surround Taklimakan Desert, like Altun Shan (east), Kunlun Shan (south), and Tian Shan, also encompass towns like Aksu, Hotan, Kashi, Korla, and Shache.

Kalahari Desert in Botswana

Botswana Week

The Kalahari Desert, which covers an area of 120,000 square miles and is the sixth largest desert* in the world, blankets southwestern BOTSWANA as well as areas of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. Towns located within the Kalahari Desert include Dutlwe, Hunkuntsi, Kang, Mabutsang, Palamakoloi, and Tshane.

* Unless you include the Antarctic Polar and Arctic Polar deserts, which are technically the world's two largest deserts. The Sahara is the largest non-polar desert.

Namibia

A sparsely-populated country located in southwestern Africa, NAMIBIA has the second lowest population density of all countries in the world. Namibia truly borders four countries: Angola located in the north, Botswana to the east, South Africa to the south and southeast, and Zambia north of the Caprivi Strip (northeastern Namibia). Although a zoomed-out, large-scale map seems to show Namibia directly bordering Zimbabwe to the east, zooming in further reveals a small separation between Namibia and Zimbabwe. This separation between Namibia's easternmost point and Zimbabwe's westernmost point is separated less than 530 meters and 1,738 feet apart. A former German colony known as German South-West Africa, Namibia gained its independence on March 21st, 1990.

● ● ● ● ●  People and Places  ● ● ● ● ●  While about 30 languages are spoken throughout the country, Namibia's sole official language is a non-native language: English. Due to former colonization by Germany, German is still spoken among some residents. Native languages include Afrikaans, Chokwe, Diriku, Fwe, Haillom, Herero, Jul'hoan, Khoekhoe, Kwambi, Kwangali, Kwanyama, Luyana, Nama, Nyemba, Yeyi, and Zemba. The capital and most-populated city is Windhoek. Other Namibian cities and communities include Berseba, Lüderitz, Okahandja, Rehoboth, and Swakopmund. Namibians use the Namibian Dollar, and its ISO 4217 currency code is NAD.

● ● ● ● ●  Land Features  ● ● ● ● ●  Namibia is located east of the South Atlantic Ocean and straddles the Tropic of Capricorn. With its iconic, towering sand dunes, the Namib Desert is situated immediately east of Skeleton Coast off of northwestern Namibia and Diamond Coast off of southwestern Namibia. The Kalahari Desert in eastern Namibia extends into western Botswana and northern South Africa. Standing at 8,550 feet or about 2,606 meters in western Namibia, Brandberg is the country's highest mountain. Also known as the King's Stone, Königstein (or Konigstein) is Brandberg's highest point. No point in Namibia is lower than the Atlantic sea level at zero feet and meters.

I designed and posted the map of Namibia in December 2020.

Algeria

Officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, ALGERIA is a vast Maghreb country in North Africa. It is the largest country on the African continent and is the first African country in alphabetical order. There are 6 bordering countries: Libya to the east, Mali to the south, Mauritania to the southwest, Morocco to the west, Niger to the southeast, and Tunisia to the east. Extreme western Algeria barely borders Western Sahara, a territory belonging to Morocco.

● ● ● ● ●  People and Places  ● ● ● ● ●  Being the tenth largest country in the world, it is no surprise that there are over 37.5 million citizens in Algeria. The capital and largest city is Algiers, also called Alger. There are over 2 million residents in Algiers with plenty of surrounding cities, including 'Aïn Beniau, Bejaïa, Blida, Bordj el Kiffan, Chlef, Larba, and Médéa. Other cities throughout the country include Constantine, El Oued, Oran, Sétif, and Tamanrasset. The official language is Arabic, and the Berber language Tamazight became a national language in 2002. Islam is the country's official religion. Non-nomadic and nomadic Berber people speak several languages. For example, nomadic Taureg Berbers in southern Algeria speak Taureg. Algerians use the Algerian Dinar as their currency, and its ISO 4217 currency code is DZD. As the post link below further explains with a large map, Algeria is administratively divided up into almost 50 provinces (wilayas).

Information and Map of Algeria's Provinces (link opens in new tab or window)

● ● ● ● ●  Land Features  ● ● ● ● ●  Algeria borders the Mediterranean Sea, being south of it. Therefore, the country has seen multiple European influences over thousands of years, being colonized by France in the 1800s up until the 1960s. With a land area of almost 920,000 square miles (2,383,000 sq. kilometers), Algeria is mainly known for the large Sahara desert stretching across much of southern Algeria. However, there are other desert and non-desert features worth mentioning. The picturesque sand dunes of the Grand Erg Occidental (west) and Grand Erg Oriental (east) erg regions in central Algeria are contrasted with rocky surfaces of Hamada du Drâa in the southwest (barely south of Morocco) and Hamada du Tinrhert in the southeast (south of Grand Erg Oriental). Tassilli-n-Ajjer and Tassili Oua-n Ahaggar are plateau regions in southeast Algeria.

The Atlas mountain range spans horizontally across northern Algeria and extends into much of Morocco and northern Tunisia. The smaller Atlas Saharien range is south of the main Atlas mountain range, and the Hauts Plateaux (High Plains) steppe-like region is in the middle of the two. The Ahaggar (Hoggar) mountain range of southeast Algeria lies in Tamanghasset, the country's largest province (wilaya). Algeria's largest mountain, Tahat, is located in the Ahaggar range. This peak stands over 9,570 feet (about 2,920 meters) tall. Chott Melrhir and Chott Merouane are salt pans, intermittent lakes, and wetland areas in northeastern Algeria. A depression lies east of those chotts, near the Tunisian border.