Syrian desert

The Syrian desert (Arabic: بادية الشام Bādiyat Ash-Shām), also known as the North Arabian desert, the Jordanian steppe, the Syrian steppe, or the Badiya, or Badiyat al-Sham, is a region of desert, semi-desert, and steppe, covering about 500,000 square kilometers (200,000 square miles) of West Asia, including parts of northern Saudi Arabia, eastern Jordan, southern Syria, and western Iraq. It accounts for about 85% of the land area of Jordan and 55% of Syria. To the south, it borders and merges into the Arabian Desert. The land is open, rocky or gravelly desert pavement, cut with occasional wadis, or river valleys, generally dry riverbeds.