Introduction: Playa is one of the most important landscapes in arid regions which covers about 1% of the world's total land area. Study of playas is important from different points of view especially pedology, sedimentology, mineralogy, environmental geology, groundwater and surface water chemistry. More than 60 playas have been identified in Iran. Considering the fact that playas and surrounding landforms are important archive of landscape evolution and paleoenvironmental variations, it seems that less attention has been paid to them so far. Soils are known as indicators of the landscapes evolution. Previous studies in arid regions of Iran imply different periods of deposition and soil formation in playa and alluvial fans or pediments. Bajestan playa is one of the known playa in northeastern Iran, and the largest clay flat exists in this playa. There is no information on the soils and their evolution in Bajestan playa. The objective of this study were to 1) identify the soils in different landforms along a transect from alluvial fan to clay in Bajestan playa 2) determine the morphological, micromorphological and mineralogical characteristics of these soils 3) determine the periods of soil and landform evolution and 4) comparison of soils evolution of the study area to other arid regions of Iran.