Deserts from around the world (yes, even Antarctica)note
Living in the desert isn't all bad. There's beautiful scenery. And good conversation. Hi rock.
—Spike, Peanuts 10.12.85
Tropes about the desert and other arid places and biomes. Compare Beach Tropes, which are also sandy.
- All Deserts Have Cacti: When a scene takes place in the desert, there's a good chance that there will be at least one cactus.
- Antlion Monster: A typically desert-dwelling creature that hunts by creating steep, unstable pits in the sand.
- "Arabian Nights" Days: The Middle East stereotyped as a deserty place full of camels and belly dancers.
- Bedouin Rescue Service: Characters are lost in the wild, such as the desert, and get rescued by a group of traveling natives, such as Bedouins.
- Build Like an Egyptian: Theme park Ancient Egypt, with plenty of sand, palm trees and pyramidal buildings.
- Cactus Person: You might encounter sentient, living cactuses in desert environments.
- Crossing the Desert: An arduous desert crossing.
- Deadly Dust Storm: A dangerous sandstorm.
- Desert Bandits: Outlaws who live or hide out in the desert.
- Desert Punk: Sci-fi in the desert.
- Desert Skull: A lone skull as decoration in a desolate wasteland.
- Desert Warfare: Military conflicts in a desert.
- Egypt Is Still Ancient: Modern Egypt portrayed as still using the symbols and architecture of ancient Egyptian civilization.
- Hollywood Mirage: Mirages are portrayed as straight-up hallucinations that can only occur in the desert when one is severely dehydrated.
- Impassable Desert: Video game deserts are impossible/almost impossible to pass until certain conditions are met.
- Land Shark: Sometimes you will find certain sharks swimming through the dunes.
- Quicksand Sucks: Improbably quick and dangerous quicksand.
- Qurac: Generic fictional Middle-Eastern country. Expect deserts, camels and mangled pseudo-Islam.
- Saharan Shipwreck: A ship is grounded improbably far away from water.
- Sand Blaster: Sand-based Elemental Powers.
- Sand Is Water: People can swim in sand.
- Sand Worm: Giant wormlike beasts that tunnel underground, usually in sandy areas, and attack prey on the surface.
- Scary Scorpions: Aggressive, venomous scorpions are a common desert danger.
- Sea of Sand: A desert is depicted as a wide, endless expanse of nothing but sand.
- Sentient Sands: Living, animated masses of sand.
- Shifting Sand Land: A video game level that takes place in a desert-type environment.
- Stock Desert Interstate: Long highways through the American desert, bare but for dramatic scenery and occasional gas stations.
- Thirsty Desert: Dangerous, hostile deserts.
