1. Sahara Desert, North Africa: The Sahara is the world’s largest desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometers (3,500,000 sq mi), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean.
2. Arabian Desert, peninsula: Arabian Desert or Eastern Desert, c.86,000 sq mi (222,740 sq km), E Egypt, bordered by the Nile valley in the west and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez in the east. It extends along most of Egypt’s eastern border and merges into the Nubian Desert in the south. The Arabian Desert is sparsely populated; most of its inhabitants are based around wells and springs. Today most of the desert can be accessed by roads.
3. Gobi Desert, Mongolia / N.E China:The Gobi is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the southwest, and by the North China Plain to the southeast.
4. Kalahari Desert, Southern Africa:The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in Southern Africa extending 900,000 square kilometers (350,000 sq), covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari Desert is the southern part of Africa, and the geography is a portion of desert and a plateau. The Kalahari supports some animals and plants because most of it is not a true desert.
5. Patagonia Desert, Argentina: The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Patagonia Desert or the Patagonian Steppe, is the largest desert in America and is the 7th largest desert in the world by area, occupying 260,000 square miles (673,000 km). It is located primarily in Argentina with small parts in Chile and is bounded by the Andes, to its west, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, in the region of Patagonia, southern Argentina.
6. Great Victoria Desert, Australia:The
Great Victoria Desert is a barren, arid, and sparsely populated desert
ecoregion in southern Australia. It falls inside the states of South
Australia and Western Australia and consists of many small sandhills,
grasslands and salt lakes. It is over 700 kilometres (430 mi) wide
(from west to east) and covers an area of 424,400 square kilometres
(163,900 sq mi).
7. Great Basin Desert, USA:The
Great Basin is the largest watershed of North America which does not
drain to an ocean. Water within the Great Basin evaporates since outward
flow is blocked. The basin extends into Mexico and covers most of
Nevada and over half of Utah, as well as parts of California, Idaho,
Oregon and Wyoming. The majority of the watershed is in the North
American Desert ecoregion, but includes areas of the Forested Mountain
and Mediterranean California ecoregions.
8. Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico:The
Chihuahuan Desert is a desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border in
the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau, bordered on
the west by the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, and overlaying
northern portions of the east range, the Sierra Madre Oriental. On the
U.S. side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and southern
New Mexico, Texas west of the Pecos River and southeastern Arizona;
south of the border, it covers the northern half of the Mexican state of
Chihuahua, most of Coahuila, north-east portion of Durango, extreme
northern portion of Zacatecas and small western portions of Nuevo León.
It has an area of about 140,000 square miles.
9. Great Sandy Desert, Australia:The Great Sandy Desert is a 360,000 km2 (140,000 sq mi) expanse in northwestern Australia. Roughly the same size as Japan, it forms part of a larger desert area known as the Western Desert. The vast region of Western Australia is sparsely populated, without significant settlements. The Great Sandy Desert is a flat area between the rocky ranges of the Pilbara and the Kimberley.
10. Kara-Kum Desert, Uzbekistan / Turkmenistan: The Karakum Desert, also spelled Kara-Kum anId Gara Gum is a desert in Central Asia. It occupies about 70 percent, or 350,000 km², of the area of Turkmenistan. Covering much of present day Turkmenistan, the Karakum Desert lies east of the Caspian Sea, with the Aral Sea to the north and the Amu Darya river and the Kyzyl Kum desert to the northeast. In modern times, with the shrinking of the Aral Sea, the extended “Aral Karakum” has appeared on the former seabed, with an estimated area of 15,440 sq.
