Atacama Desert Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1000-km (600-mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains. The Atacama desert is one of the driest places in the world (the driest being the McMurdo Dry Valleys ) , as well as the only true desert to receive less precipitation than the polar deserts. According to estimates, the Atacama Desert occupies , or if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included. Most of the desert is composed of stony terrain, salt lakes ("salares"), sand, and felsic lava
Tourism in the Arab world the "Fertile Crescent", "Eastern Mediterranean", "Syria (region)", "Mashriq" which is the Arabic word for "Levant". The Eastern Mediterranean Muslims, Christians, Circassians and Christian Maronite Cypriots populations speak Levantine Arabic also known as Mediterranean Arabic (شامي). These populations share not only the language, but the geographic position, cuisine, some customs, and a very long history. Geographically-speaking, the Levant boasts some of the most diverse natural features in the Arab World. The Syrian Desert, a 200,000-square-miles wide rocky and flat desert, occupies the center of the Levant and is considered a continuation of the Arabian Desert. To its east lies Mesopotamia, fertile