Syrian Desert

The Syrian Desert (بادية الشام Bādiyat Ash-Shām), also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe covering of the Middle East, including parts of southern Syria, eastern Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia, and western Iraq. It accounts for 85% of the land area of Jordan and 55% of Syria. To the south it borders and merges into the Arabian Desert. The land is open, rocky or gravelly desert pavement, cut with occasional wadis. The desert is bounded by the Orontes Valley and the volcanic field of Harrat al-Shamah to the west, and by the Euphrates to the east. In the north, the desert gives way to the more fertile areas and to the south it runs into the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. Some sources equate the Syrian Desert with the "Hamad Desert" while others limit the name Hamad to the southern central plateau. A few consider the Hamad to be the whole region and the Syrian Desert just the northern part. Several parts of the Syrian Desert have been referred to separately such as the Palmyrene desert around Palmyra, and the Homs desert. The eastern section of the Syrian Desert, that within borders of Iraq, can be referred to (within Iraqi context) as the Western Desert. The name Shamiyah has also been used for the Syrian Desert. The name has been translated in the past as Badiyat al-Sham (or Badiyat ash-Sham) The region in the middle of the desert is the Hamad Plateau, a rather flat, stony semi-desert consisting of limestone bedrock covered with chert gravel. What little rain arrives on the plateau flows into local salt flats. The highest peaks of the Plateau are those of the + Khawr um Wual in Saudi Arabia, and the Jebel Aneiza, at the border tripoint between Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Together with the other deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, the Hamad Desert has been described as one of the most arid deserts of the world. Some of the climax plants in the Syrian Badia are Caroxylon vermiculatum, Stipa barbata, Artemisia herba-alba and Atriplex leucoclada.