Rig-e Jenn

In Iran's Dasht-e Kavir, the Great Salt Desert, a remote stretch of shifting sand dunes straddling Semnan and Isfahan provinces has long been called Rig-e Jenn — literally the "Dune of the Jinn." Persian desert folklore holds that these dunes are territory of malevolent jinn and wandering spirits, and travelers have told for generations that anyone who strays into the deepest reaches never finds their way back out, disoriented by dunes that seem to shift and repeat themselves regardless of direction taken. Unlike much of the surrounding salt flats, Rig-e Jenn has drawn few modern surveys or expeditions, in part because of the terrain's genuine danger — soft sand, extreme heat, and no reliable landmarks — which locals say only reinforces the old belief that something more than geography keeps outsiders from returning.