TEHRAN—The UNESCO-registered Lut desert, in the heart of the Iranian plateau, has recently hosted a tour dedicated to health tourism and sand therapy, a local tourism official has said.

The two-day tour was aimed at introducing the region’s tourist attractions and highlighting the desert’s high capacity for sand therapy, Mohammadreza Vaezi explained on Monday.

Various measures were taken to ensure the well-being of the tour participants, including installing field toilets, setting up Siah-Chador (nomadic black tents) and drinking water tankers, and creating an access path, the official added.

The Lut Desert, widely referred to as Dasht-e Lut (“Emptiness Plain”), is a large salt desert encircled by the provinces of Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan, and South Khorasan. It is the world’s 27th-largest desert and was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 17, 2016.

The vast desert is teeming with giant dunes, shifting sands, salt plains, and wind-hewn kaluts, offering visitors epic journeys of breathtaking beauty and wilderness. It is a destination for people who are in search of new adventures; outstanding scenery and unparalleled serenity.

It is considered one of the top areas in the world for finding meteorites, thanks to its unique parameters. In recent years, significant finds have been made, with the efforts of national and international teams of researchers. Seven years of satellite temperature data analyzed by NASA show that the Lut Desert is the hottest spot on Earth. Based on the research, it was the hottest during five of the seven years and had the highest temperature overall: 70.7°C in 2005.

ABU/AM