The Sahara Isn't the World's Largest Desert

What would you say if asked about the world's largest desert? While the Sahara Desert might come to mind, it's only partially correct. The Sahara is the biggest non-polar desert, characterized by its scorching heat and dryness, making it a challenging environment for flora and fauna.

Deserts come in various forms, including semi-arid, coastal, and cold (polar) deserts, all expansive and desolate. So, which deserts are the largest globally, and just how massive are they?

Types of Deserts

Pop culture often depicts deserts as vast expanses of dry, sandy landscapes, but in reality, Earth hosts four primary types of deserts. The key distinction lies in their temperatures and geographical locations.

The four main types of deserts found on Earth are:

Now that we’ve explored the four desert types, let’s uncover the largest desert in the world. Join us as we count down the top 10 largest deserts globally, beginning with number 10, and discover the diverse societies, flora, and fauna that thrive in these harsh environments.

Tundra vs. Desert

Deserts and tundras represent two extreme biomes, each with distinct climatic and ecological traits. Deserts are known for their heat and aridity, with annual rainfall often below 9.8 inches (25 centimeters). In contrast, tundras are cold and dry, featuring permafrost and frigid temperatures.

Desert vegetation includes hardy, drought-tolerant species like cacti, while tundras are home to mosses, lichens, and small shrubs adapted to frozen ground. Desert animals, such as camels and lizards, are adept at water conservation, whereas tundra inhabitants like reindeer and arctic foxes thrive in icy conditions.

1. Antarctic Polar Desert

Antarctica is not only the largest continent but also the biggest desert globally. This icy expanse covers the South Pole with an area of 5.5 million square miles (14.2 million square kilometers). Known as the windiest continent, it houses one of the driest regions on the planet — the McMurdo Dry Valleys. This area is unique as it is the only place on Earth completely lacking microbial life.

Despite its vast icy terrain, the Antarctic Polar Desert receives a mere 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) of precipitation annually. However, this record as the largest desert may not last indefinitely. Due to climate change and rapid ice melt at the poles, polar deserts like this one could diminish in size, leading to rising sea levels and irreversible damage to these delicate ecosystems.

2. Arctic Polar Desert

The Earth's polar regions host the two largest deserts globally. The Arctic Polar Desert, covering 5.4 million square miles (13.9 million square kilometers), is the second-largest desert, slightly smaller than its Antarctic counterpart. This cold desert, which includes parts of Canada, Greenland, and Russia, receives minimal precipitation due to its freezing temperatures and dry air. Snowfall occurs but rarely melts, yet the Arctic Polar Desert supports resilient species like birds, walruses, and polar bears.

3. Sahara Desert

The Sahara Desert, with its vast sand dunes, camels, and occasional oases, is the quintessential image of a desert. As the largest hot desert and the third-largest desert globally, it covers million square miles (9.1 million square kilometers) of dry, windswept terrain. Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea and Mediterranean in the north, the Sahara dominates Northern Africa. Coastal areas may see 4 to 10 inches (10 to 25 centimeters) of rain annually, but the inner sand seas, forming the desert's core, receive less than a quarter-inch of rain each year.

Remarkably, the Sahara is expanding. A 2018 National Science Foundation study revealed that the desert has grown by 10 percent since 1920. Experts predict this expansion will persist unless significant reductions in emissions and atmospheric pollution are achieved.

4. Arabian Desert

The Arabian Desert, distinct from the Syrian and North Arabian Deserts, ranks as the fourth-largest desert globally. It is the second-largest subtropical desert by land area, covering 1 million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers) across the Arabian Peninsula. This desert is also a habitat for 102 unique mammal species and 310 diverse bird species.

5. Gobi Desert

The Gobi Desert, spanning 500,000 square miles (1.3 million square kilometers), is the fifth-largest desert in the world. Situated between the Himalayas and Siberia, this cold, rain shadow desert experiences minimal vegetation and precipitation, primarily in the form of ice and snowstorms. While temperatures are not as extreme as the Arctic tundra, Siberian winds can plunge them to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius).

The Gobi Desert holds significant historical importance on our list. It was here that Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, and since 130 B.C.E., it has been a key route for Silk Road trade, linking China with Central Asia and the Mediterranean. This desert played a vital role in facilitating the exchange of goods, ideas, and cultures among civilizations such as the Han Chinese, Mongols, Persians, and Europeans.

6. Patagonian Desert

Spanning 260,000 square miles (673,000 square kilometers) across Argentina and Chile, the Patagonian Desert is the sixth-largest desert in the world. Nestled between the Andes Mountains and the Patagonian Steppe, this semi-arid region is rich in biodiversity, featuring species like the Southern Beech Tree and the Patagonian Cypress.

For millennia, the Tehuelche people have inhabited this region, tracing their lineage to ancient artists who created the paleolithic cave paintings at the UNESCO World Heritage site, Cueva de las Manos. Exploring these caves offers a glimpse into the lives of early humans who left their indelible mark on history.

7. Great Victoria Desert

Spanning 250,000 square miles (647,497 square kilometers), this Australian desert is a remote and sparsely populated area. Its terrain includes flat grasslands, salt lakes, small mountains, dry valleys, and rocky plateaus. Much like the Sahara, which is steeped in nomadic history, the Great Victoria Desert holds deep cultural and spiritual significance for Indigenous Aboriginal communities who have thrived here for millennia.

8. Kalahari Desert

As the eighth-largest desert globally, this semi-arid region spans approximately 220,000 square miles (569,797 square kilometers) across Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. Its iconic red sand dunes and open savannahs are inhabited by diverse wildlife native to southern Africa, such as lions, cheetahs, hyenas, giraffes, and zebras. The Kalahari is also home to the San people, Indigenous tribes who have maintained their hunter-gatherer traditions and close-knit family structures for thousands of years.

9. Syrian Desert

Also referred to as Badiyat ash-Sham, the Syrian Desert is a vast, arid expanse covering 190,000 square miles (492,000 square kilometers) across Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. This unforgiving landscape features endless sand and gravel plains, rocky mountains, and intermittent dry riverbeds known as wadis.

Similar to other harsh environments, the Syrian Desert supports only the most resilient nomadic communities. The Bedouin tribes, who settled here between the first and fourth centuries C.E., continue to uphold their traditional way of life. However, their existence and the desert itself face threats from oil drilling, overgrazing, and rising temperatures due to climate change.

10. Great Basin Desert

The Great Basin Desert, a sprawling arid zone in the western United States, encompasses 190,000 square miles (492,000 square kilometers) across Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming. Its high altitude (over 9,000 feet [2,750 meters] above sea level), rugged landscape, and limited water supply make it one of the most barren areas in the nation, with annual rainfall often below 10 inches (25.4 centimeters). This desert is marked by extensive sagebrush fields, salt flats, and dry lakebeds, hosting unique flora and fauna adapted to its harsh conditions. As the 10th-largest desert globally, it holds significant anthropological and natural history value, with evidence of Native American settlements dating back millennia and some of Earth's oldest plant species, such as the ancient bristlecone pine, known as the "Prometheus Tree," which was estimated to be 4,700 to 5,000 years old when it was felled in 1965.