Natural wonder Asia
Karakum Desert
The Karakum is a sandy desert in Turkmenistan. Summers are very hot and winters are cold. Desert plants and animals live there.
The Karakum Desert lies in Turkmenistan, in Central Asia. It has ridges of sand dunes, salt flats and clay plains, with very cold winters and hot summers. Saxaul shrubs, goitered gazelles and many reptiles and birds are adapted to it, and parts of it are now a World Heritage site.
The Karakum (Garagum) is a cold winter desert of Turan, in Turkmenistan, with ridged sands, salt-flat complexes and clay desert. Its Repetek and Bereketli Garagum reserves are part of the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan World Heritage property (2023), noted for saxaul woodland and desert-adapted fauna such as the goitered gazelle.
Photo: Ziegler175, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover the Karakum
The Karakum is a big sandy desert in Turkmenistan.
In this photo, camels stand among green bushes on the sand.
The Karakum Desert lies in Turkmenistan, in Central Asia. It is a cold winter desert: very little rain falls, winters are very cold and summers are hot. In its eastern part, UNESCO describes big, hummocky ridges of sand dunes with valley-like hollows between them.
This photo, from April 1992, shows camels among green shrubs on rolling sand, with more bushes along the ridge behind them.
UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme describes the Repetek Reserve, which IUCN places in the Eastern Karakum, as a landscape of large, hummocky, ridged dunes and valley-like depressions, in one of the hottest regions of Central Asia. IUCN's evaluation of the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan describes Bereketli Garagum, in the Central Karakum about 240 km north of Ashgabat, as ridged sandy and salt-flat complexes, intracontinental saltmarsh desert and clay desert.
The hero photo, by Ziegler175, was taken in the Karakum in April 1992 and shows camels among shrubs on sand dunes.
- Country
- Turkmenistan
- Repetek Biosphere Reserve
- 251,318 ha, East Karakum (1978)
- World Heritage
- Cold Winter Deserts of Turan (2023)
What makes the Karakum a desert
In summer, the Karakum is very hot.
In winter, it gets very cold. Desert plants and animals can live through both.
The Karakum is part of the cold winter deserts of Turan, which stretch across Central Asia between the Caspian Sea and high mountains. UNESCO describes them as having very little rain, very cold winters and hot summers.
Plants and animals here have special ways of surviving, in their shapes, their bodies and their behavior. NASA notes that in spring, strong, gusty winds can lift dust from the Karakum into the air.
UNESCO describes the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan as arid areas of Central Asia's temperate zone between the Caspian Sea and the Turanian high mountains, with minimal precipitation, very cold winters and hot summers. Its criterion (ix) highlights the evolution of survival and adaptation strategies: morphological, physiological and behavioral adaptations in animals, and taxonomic diversification and morphological convergence in plants.
In spring, NASA's Earth Observatory notes, cold northern air clashing with warm southern air brings strong, gusty winds; on 3 April 2022, westerly winds lifted dust and clay from the Karakum and Kyzylkum deserts.
Saxaul, gazelles and lizards
Saxaul is a tough desert shrub that grows here.
Gazelles, lizards and many birds live in the desert too.
At Repetek, one of the oldest nature reserves in Turkmenistan, black saxaul shrubs grow over large areas. UNESCO says saxaul woodland shows how desert ecosystems can keep storing carbon.
The reserve has the most complete set of birds typical of the Karakum's sand desert, 22 kinds of reptiles and goitered gazelles, a threatened mammal.
UNESCO's MAB profile calls Repetek one of the few natural desert sites in Central Asia with large coverage of black saxaul; it forms part of an Important Bird Area, supports the most complete assemblage of bird species typical of the Karakum sand desert, stable populations of the globally threatened goitred gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) and 22 reptile species.
Across the World Heritage property, UNESCO lists sagebrush and saltwort vegetation, desert grasses and saxaul shrubs and woodland, a high share of endemic plants, and threatened mammals including goitered gazelle, saiga and urial, along with species such as the kulan, marbled polecat, Asian houbara and steppe tortoise in some component parts.
Visiting safely
The desert can be very hot. Drink lots of water.
Stay in the shade and wear a hat.
Repetek lies in one of the hottest regions of Central Asia. The US National Weather Service notes that young children are especially at risk from heat, because their bodies adapt to it less well than adults' bodies do.
PlayOwl's advice: travel in the desert only with a grown-up who knows the area, carry plenty of water, and rest in the shade during the hottest part of the day.
Summer heat is the main hazard: UNESCO places Repetek in one of the hottest regions of Central Asia, and the US National Weather Service notes that young children and infants are particularly vulnerable to heat-related illness because their bodies are less able to adapt to heat than adults'. Spring winds can also raise dust.
PlayOwl's own advice: plan desert trips for cooler hours, carry more water than you expect to need, and go with a guide.
Amazing facts
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This desert has very cold winters, not just hot summers.
The Karakum is a cold winter desert: very cold winters and hot summers, with very little rain.
UNESCO groups the Karakum's reserves with the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan: minimal precipitation, very cold winters, hot summers.
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Twenty-two kinds of reptiles live at Repetek.
The Repetek reserve in the Karakum has 22 kinds of reptiles.
UNESCO's MAB profile lists 22 reptile species at Repetek, two in the Red Book.
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Saxaul shrubs help store carbon in the desert.
UNESCO says saxaul woodland shows how desert ecosystems can keep storing carbon.
UNESCO: saxaul woodland demonstrates the capacity of desert ecosystems for ongoing carbon sequestration and storage.
Words to know
- desert
- a place that gets very little rain or snow
- dune
- a hill or ridge of sand piled up by the wind
- salt flat
- flat ground covered with a crust of salt
- saxaul
- a tough shrub or small tree of Central Asian deserts
- adaptation
- a body part or behavior that helps a living thing survive where it lives
- biosphere reserve
- an area UNESCO recognizes for protecting nature while people live and work there
Discovery challenge
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Which country is the Karakum Desert in?
In which country is the Karakum Desert?
Which country holds the Karakum Desert and the Repetek reserve?
- Turkmenistan
- Brazil
- Canada
Show the answer
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan, in Central Asia.
Turkmenistan.
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What are winters like in the Karakum?
What kind of winters does the Karakum have?
What winter climate defines the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan?
- Very cold
- Hot and rainy
- Warm and humid
Show the answer
Very cold
Very cold.
Very cold winters, with hot summers.
Very cold winters, hot summers and minimal precipitation.
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Which shrub grows in large areas at Repetek?
Which shrub covers large areas of the Repetek reserve?
Which plant does UNESCO say Repetek has large coverage of?
- Black saxaul
- Bamboo
- Cactus
Show the answer
Black saxaul
Black saxaul.
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How many kinds of reptiles live at Repetek?
How many reptile species does UNESCO list at Repetek?
How many reptile species does the Repetek reserve support, according to UNESCO?
- 22
- 2
- 220
Show the answer
22
Twenty-two.
22 reptile species.
22, two of them in the Red Book.
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What should you bring to a hot desert?
What should you carry plenty of in a hot desert?
Given the heat at Repetek, what should desert travelers carry plenty of?
- Plenty of water
- A snow shovel
- An umbrella for rain
Show the answer
Plenty of water
Lots of water.
Plenty of water, and rest in the shade.
Plenty of water; young children are especially vulnerable to heat.
Nearby places
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Watch
City
Ashgabat
Ashgabat is the capital of Turkmenistan, in Central Asia. It lies at the foot of the Kopet Dag mountains, with the Karakum Desert to the north. The 2022 census counted 1,030,063 people, and Guinness World Records lists the city for its many white marble buildings.
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Watch
City
Bukhara
Bukhara is a city in Uzbekistan that lay on the Silk Roads, the old trade routes across Asia. UNESCO says it is more than 2,000 years old and calls its old town the most complete example of a medieval town in Central Asia. About 274,800 people lived there at the start of 2025.
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Landmark
Minaret of Jam
The Minaret of Jam is a brick tower 65 meters tall in a remote mountain valley in Afghanistan. It was built in 1194 for Ghiyas ud-Din, a sultan of the Ghurid dynasty. Its outside is covered in patterns made of brick, with a band of turquoise writing, and it stands where two rivers meet.
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Landmark
Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome is a huge rocket launch site on the flat grasslands of Kazakhstan. The Soviet Union began building it in secret in 1955. Sputnik 1, the first satellite, launched from here in 1957, and Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, in 1961. Today Russia rents it from Kazakhstan, and crews have launched from it to the International Space Station as recently as 2025.
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Watch
City
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan, in Central Asia. It grew up in an oasis watered by the Chirchiq River, at the foot of the Tian Shan mountains. Its metro opened in 1977, and its TV tower is 375 meters tall. Uzbekistan's official estimate gives 3,112,748 people in the city at the start of 2025.
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City
Tehran
Tehran, the capital of Iran, spreads up the slopes of the Alborz Mountains, with snowy peaks to the north and desert to the south. Once a small village, and later a market town known for its pomegranates, it became the capital in 1786. Today it is a huge, modern city with an old roofed bazaar, a palace that is a World Heritage Site and the 435-meter Milad Tower.
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Natural wonder
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water on Earth, with five countries around its shores. About 130 rivers flow into it, but none flows out, so its level rises and falls with the balance of river water, rain and evaporation. Since the mid-1990s it has been dropping.
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Watch
City
Karaj
Karaj is a big city in Iran, 36 kilometers west of Tehran, on the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountains. It is the main city of Alborz Province. The 2016 census counted 1,592,492 people in Karaj, and Store norske leksikon calls it the fourth largest city in the country.
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Natural wonder
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water on Earth, with five countries around its shores. About 130 rivers flow into it, but none flows out, so its level rises and falls with the balance of river water, rain and evaporation. Since the mid-1990s it has been dropping.
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Sahara
The Sahara fills almost all of northern Africa. Britannica calls it the largest hot desert in the world: about 4,800 kilometers from east to west and about 8.6 million square kilometers in all. Only about a quarter of it is sand dunes; the rest is gravel plains, rocky plateaus and mountains.
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Country
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia, and nine-tenths of it is desert. The huge Karakum sand desert fills its middle, while people live mostly in green oases along rivers and mountains. Ancient Silk Road cities such as Merv stand here, and the 2022 national census counted about 7.1 million people.
- Watch Geography What makes a desert? A desert is any place that gets very little rain or snow, usually less than about 250 millimeters a year. Deserts can be hot, like the Sahara, or freezing cold, like Antarctica, the driest continent. They form where winds, mountains or cold ocean currents keep rain away.
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Natural wonder
Mount Everest
Mount Everest, in the Himalayas on the border of Nepal and China, is what Britannica calls the highest mountain in the world. In 2020 China and Nepal announced its height as 8,848.86 meters. It grew as two giant plates of Earth's crust pushed together, and it is still rising a tiny bit each year.
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Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji, 3,776 meters high, is the highest mountain in Japan and an active volcano that last erupted in 1707. Its almost perfect cone was built by three volcanoes, one on top of another, and it has inspired artists for hundreds of years.
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Ha Long Bay
Ha Long Bay is a bay in northeast Vietnam where more than a thousand limestone islands rise straight out of the sea. Over millions of years, water dissolved the limestone into towers and caves, and then the sea flooded in around them. Together with the nearby Cat Ba Archipelago it is a World Heritage site.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan, Central Asia.
- Describe what makes a cold winter desert different from a hot desert.
- Name plants and animals adapted to the Karakum.
- Know how to stay safe in desert heat.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- How could an animal survive both very hot summers and very cold winters?
- Why might deep-rooted shrubs help hold desert sand in place?
- Why is it important to protect deserts, not just forests and oceans?
Try at home or in class
- Pour dry sand on a tray and gently fan it from one side with a piece of cardboard, keeping faces away: watch ridges and hollows form.
- Put a thermometer in sand in the sun and another in the shade, and compare the readings after an hour.
Key vocabulary: desert, dune, salt flat, saxaul, adaptation, biosphere reserve
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Repetek Biosphere Reserve , UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme
- Cold Winter Deserts of Turan , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Cold Winter Deserts of Turan: IUCN Technical Evaluation (2023) , IUCN, via the UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- A Dusty Spring Day in Turkmenistan , NASA Earth Observatory
- Heat Safety , U.S. National Weather Service
- File:MAKarakum6.jpg , Wikimedia Commons
- Natural Earth vector data , Natural Earth (NACIS) (Public domain)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.