Lut Desert (Kaluts)

Wind-sculpted desert ridges in the hottest place on earth

The Dasht-e Lut, the Lut Desert, fills the eastern half of Kerman province and is one of the most extreme natural environments on the planet — the surface temperature regularly tops 65°C in summer, and it holds the record for the hottest land surface temperature ever recorded. The Lut is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed for its astonishing wind-carved landforms.

The most-visited section is the Kaluts (or yardangs) — vast wind-sculpted ridges of sandstone that look like the ruins of a long-abandoned city, stretching to the horizon in golden bands. Sunset is the time to be there, when the sand turns from yellow to apricot to rose. Tours leave from Kerman or Shahdad, two hours away by car; do not attempt this without a local driver and plenty of water.

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In 2005 a NASA satellite measured a surface temperature of 70.7°C in the Lut Desert — the hottest reading ever recorded on the planet. The dasht is so hot, dry, and saline that it supports almost no life at all; the fewer than ten percent of the desert that has water table at less than a metre supports bacteria, lizards, and a handful of rodents, and that is effectively the entire food web.

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