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Rigestan,
also spelled RIGESTAN (Persian: "country of sand"), arid
plateau region in southwestern Afghanistan. Rigestan is, for the
greater part, a sandy desert with ridges and small, isolated hills
of red sand. The sand ridges and dunes, reaching heights of between
50 and 100 feet (15 and 30 m), alternate with windblown sand-covered
planes, devoid of vegetation and changing in some parts into barren
gravel and clay. In the local language the Rigestan is often called
the chol ("desert"). Some gypsum is mined at Galeh
Chad, and Baluchi and Pashtun nomads, herders of sheep, goats, and
camels, use portions of the Rigestan near the Helmand and Arghandab
rivers as winter pasture. |
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