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About 90% of the land Surface of Iran, cosists of arid zones. The large proportion of this area comprises deserts and "Kawir" . Many researchers have written several books and articles describing this dry part of the country.
Unfortunatly, few of them have touched on the issue, of special characteristics of arid zones. Most of them do not differeciate between Kawir and desert, and they think that Kawir and desert are the same and the words "desert" and "Sahara" are synonymous.
The author of this article first defines and classifies the various kinds of arid zones and then describes Kawir, desert
and Sahara from different point of view. These views are based on personal works and experiences of the author during the past 40 years.