bajada
bah-HAH-dah
A broad, gently sloping apron of alluvium and debris fanning out from the base of a mountain range into a desert basin, formed by the merging of multiple alluvial fans. The bajada is the transition zone between mountain and flat — neither steep nor level, built grain by grain from the sediment the mountains shed. Desert cities from Tucson to Tehran are built on bajadas.
Etymology
Spanish, meaning descent or slope, from bajar, to go down. The land descends from the mountain.
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