LARGEST DESERTS

Compiled by Chilman Sahni

Deserts cover about a quarter of the world’s land area. They range from extremely arid and barren sandy deserts (about 4% of the total land surface of the globe), through arid (15%) to semi-arid. Most deserts have features of all these, with one zone merging into the next, so the start and finish of any desert is not exact. Many of the world’s largest deserts are broken down by geographers into smaller desert regions- the Australian Desert includes the Gibson, Great Sandy, Great Victoria and Simpson, for example.

            DESERT                                          LOCATION                                                 APPROX AREA (sq km)

1. Sahara                                         Northern Africa                                              9,100,000
2. Australian                                   Australia*                                                        3,400,000
3. Arabian Peninsula                     Southwest Asia#                                            2,600,000
4. Turkestan                                    Central Asia^                                                   1,900,000
5. Gobi                                              Central Asia                                                    1,300,000
6. North American Desert             US/Mexico∫                                                      1,300,000

*Includes Gibson, Great Sandy, Great Victoria and Simpson.     #

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