Beyond the saguaros, an intricate web of life flourishes. Mesquite and palo verde trees provide shade and sustenance while ...

This story appears in the July 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine. In the Afar desert of Ethiopia, there are a lot of ways to die. There is disease, of course. One can also perish from ...

Scientists brave the desert's hardships for a different reason. The Afar is one of the few places on Earth where an undersea ridge—a jagged volcanic seam where magma oozes up and becomes new ...

But have you ever wondered what plants and animals live in a desert and how they survive there? This is the Sahara. The largest desert on Earth! Wow! It looks like it hardly ever rains here.

At ground level, the star dunes in Erg Chebbi can look like human-made pyramids when viewed from afar. (Image credit: Getty Images) The largest star dune in Erg Chebbi, Lala Lallia, is 330 feet ...

This intriguing astronaut photo shows around a dozen giant "star dunes" as they slowly dance across a sandy field near the ...