The 68-square-mile Pinnacles Desert is desolate but for its sentinels--thousands of limestone pillars, most the height of a man, others 20 feet tall, all the progeny of erosion.

FORBES: Where the Outback Meets the Sea

The 68-square-mile Pinnacles Desert is desolate but for its sentinels-thousands of limestone pillars, most the height of a man, others 20 feet tall, all the progeny of erosion.

FORBES: Where the Outback Meets the Sea

The area is still largely industrial and many streets are desolate, but the Hunters Point section is visibly changing.

WSJ: Long Island City: Tech Boom Taps Queens

It was scary and desolate, but just two years since, and he told me he could clearly see the area has got significantly better since then.

FORBES: Startups in the Desert - Investigating the Las Vegas Downtown Project

But there is still a desolate no-man's land in the centre which has hardly changed since we visited last year, except for a clock tower with even less of a face.

BBC: Homs: War changes the soul of Syrian city

The Libyan government is aware of the urgent need to better control its borders, but they are long and desolate -- and much of Libya's air force was destroyed during the revolution.

CNN: Benghazi tries to escape its ghosts, past and present

The traffic can be daunting around major cities, but there are some remote and desolate stretches with empty beaches.

BBC: Motorbiking in Southeast Asia

But without a lot of federal aid, the town would be desolate.

ECONOMIST: Poverty looms for the long-term unemployed

After crash-landing on a frozen and desolate planet, Issac will fight not only for his own survival, but for that of all mankind, against an inhospitable planet and the deadly creatures who live there.

ENGADGET: Astro to offer Dead Space 3-themed A30 and A40 headsets on February 5th

But on a trek to the Bedunge Swamp with 12 armed rangers, your correspondent found a parched and desolate landscape of fear.

ECONOMIST: Independence has left South Sudan with much to do