Gobi Desert Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert () is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of Northern and Northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Taklamakan Desert to the west, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the southwest, and by the North China Plain to the southeast. The Gobi is notable in history as part of the great Mongol Empire, and as the location of several important cities along the Silk Road. The Gobi
Gobi Desert as a buffer against further desertification. The Gobi, broadly defined, can be divided into five distinct dry ecoregions, based on variations in climate and topography: The surface is extremely diversified, although there are no great differences in vertical elevation. Between Ulaanbaatar () and the small lake of Iren-dubasu-nor (), the surface is greatly eroded. Broad flat depressions and basins are separated by groups of flat-topped mountains of relatively low elevation ), through which archaic rocks crop out as crags and isolated rugged masses. The floors of the depressions lie mostly between above sea-level. Farther south, between Iren-dutiasu-nor and the Yellow