Where Is the Gobi Desert?

The Gobi is a vast rain-shadow desert stretching across southern Mongolia and northern China (Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Xinjiang). Covering approximately 1.3 million km², it is the fifth-largest desert in the world and the largest in Asia. Despite its popular image as a sand sea, much of the Gobi consists of exposed bare rock and hard-packed gravel. Temperatures are extreme: summer can reach 45 °C, while winter drops to -40 °C. The Gobi is rich in fossils: the first confirmed dinosaur eggs were discovered there in 1923 by Roy Chapman Andrews expedition. It also sits along the ancient Silk Road and contains the ruins of several medieval cities.