Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert
Length1,500 km (930 mi)
Width800 km (500 mi)
Area1,295,000 km2 (500,000 sq mi)
Naming
Native name
Geography
Countries
State
RegionInner Mongolia
Coordinates42°35′N 103°26′E / 42.59°N 103.43°E / 42.59; 103.43
Gobi Desert
Chinese name
Chinese戈壁
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinGēbì
Bopomofoㄍㄜ ㄅㄧˋ
Gwoyeu RomatzyhGebih
Wade–GilesKo-pi4
IPA[kɤ́.pî]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjingقْبِ
Mongolian name
Mongolian CyrillicГовь
Mongolian scriptᠭᠣᠪᠢ
Transcriptions
SASM/GNCGowĭ

The Gobi Desert (Mongolian: Говь, ᠭᠣᠪᠢ, /ˈɡbi/; Chinese: 戈壁; pinyin: gēbì) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word gobi, used to refer to all of the waterless regions in the Mongolian Plateau; in Chinese, gobi is used to refer to rocky, semi-deserts such as the Gobi itself rather than sandy deserts.