Simpson Desert

The Simpson Desert spans about 176,500 square kilometers across the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia, the fourth largest desert in Australia. Its defining feature is a field of long, parallel sand dunes running north to south, ranging from about 3 meters high in the west to roughly 30 meters in the east, among the longest parallel dunes on Earth. Rainfall averages only about 150 millimeters a year and summer temperatures regularly exceed 50 degrees Celsius, yet the desert sits above the Great Artesian Basin, whose springs and bores have long supplied water to the region. The Wangkangurru Yarluyandi people, who call the desert Munga-Thirri, have lived in the area for thousands of years.