When was the Gobi Desert first identified by European explorers in modern records?

The Gobi Desert entered European awareness through medieval travel narratives in the late 13th century, especially the accounts associated with Marco Polo. The Gobi spans large parts of northern China and southern Mongolia and is one of Asia’s great cold deserts. It is known for extreme temperature swings, sparse rainfall, and wide gravel plains as well as sand dunes. Later explorers and scientists mapped it in much greater detail during the 19th and 20th centuries. Its historical role in Silk Road travel made it an important geographic frontier.