Gobi Desert

Yes, the Gobi is a cold winter desert, with temperatures dropping as low as −40°C (−40°F) in winter and rising above 45°C (113°F) in summer. It sits on a high plateau at roughly 1,500 meters elevation across northern China and southern Mongolia, which contributes to these extreme temperature swings.

Unlike the Sahara, the Gobi's terrain is primarily composed of exposed bare rock and gravel plains, with sand dunes covering only a small percentage of its surface. This is because the Gobi sits on a high, arid plateau where wind has stripped away loose sediment over millennia, leaving vast expanses of exposed stone and hard-packed earth.

The Gobi Desert is one of the world's richest sources of dinosaur fossils, particularly in the Nemegt Basin and the Flaming Cliffs (Bayanzag) of Mongolia. Roy Chapman Andrews' American Museum of Natural History expeditions in the 1920s famously discovered the first confirmed dinosaur eggs there, along with fossils of Velociraptor and Protoceratops.

The Gobi Desert spans parts of northern China and southern Mongolia, covering roughly 1.3 million square kilometers. It is bounded by the Altai Mountains and the Mongolian steppes to the north and the North China Plain to the south, sitting on a high plateau that contributes to its cold, dry climate.