The Syrian Desert, also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe covering 500,000 square kilometers of the Middle East, including parts of southern Syria, eastern Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia, and western Iraq. It accounts for 85% of the land area of Jordan and 55% of Syria. To the south it borders and merges into the Arabian Desert. The land is open, rocky or gravelly desert pavement, cut with occasional wadis.

In physical geography, a steppe is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include:the montane grasslands and shrublands biome the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome