terrain

Officials believe the Palisades fire began around 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7 as high winds sent flames racing over the bone-dry terrain.

The surveyors traveled mostly on horseback and on foot as they mapped the rugged terrain, enduring grueling days in desert camps where the heat sometimes topped 120 degrees.

The terrain is difficult enough and inaccessible enough that it likely would not have been utilized even by pre-Columbian peoples, certainly not in a permanent way.

But challenges like difficult terrain and protests within India itself over some of its projects have meant that construction of water infrastructure in the Indus basin has not moved fast enough.

He’d seen buzzards on the hillside just ahead, where the terrain turns steeply upward and the forest begins.