Dasht-e Lut, the Hottest place on Earth

Dasht-e Lut Desert Iran, is the Hottest place on Earth

Iran's Lut Desert, an area so parched and desolate that no one is around to regularly monitor temperatures.

Though maintaining a weather station is impractical in the Lut, a NASA satellite equipped with a moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) was able to measure temperatures here from space, during a seven-year study. In five of those years - 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009 - the hottest spot on Earth could be found in the Lut. In 2005, a temperature of 70.7°C (159.3°F) was measured, the highest reading ever officially confirmed for a location on Earth.