When Alexander the Great returned in 325 BC from his campaign in India, he marched through this region because he wanted to stay close to his fleet, and to accomplish yet one more thing no army had ever successfully done before. He lost many men and probably caught the malaria that soon claimed his life.
For those historically inclined, here's a link that describes the account of the march of Alexander's army through that desolate region: Alexander the Great: the Gedrosian desert
An excerpt:
Most historians of Alexander's campaigns have stated that the sufferings of his men on that march were out of all proportion greater than anything they had had to endure in Asia...
The result was disastrous: the blazing heat and the lack of water caused innumerable casualties, especially among the animals, most of which died of thirst or from the effects of the deep, burning, sun-baked sand. Sometimes they met with lofty hills of sand - loose, deep sand, into which they sank as if it were mud or untrodden snow; sometimes, climbing or descending, the mules and horses suffered even greater distress from the uneven and treacherous surface of the track. Not the least hardship was the varying length of the marches, as the fact that they never knew when they would find water made regular, normal marches impossible. It was not so bad when they found water in the morning after covering the requisite distance during the night; but when there was still further to go, and they found themselves plodding on and on as the day advanced, the double distress of heat and raging thirst was almost intolerable.