Hāmūn-e Dašt-e Lut

The basin of the Dasht-e Lut contains salt pans amid one of Iran's most arid deserts. Mountains surround the depression, casting it into a rain shadow. When streams enter from the margins, their waters evaporate and leave mineral crusts in the dry beds and salt flats. Wind has also shaped long ridges and great dunes across the wider desert, giving the Lut a striking variety of landforms.