Structured Lists Directory

Overview

World's Major Deserts

The world's major deserts are representative deserts selected from the desert regions that cover approximately 30% of Earth's land surface, based on their area and distinctive geographical conditions. They include various types such as polar deserts including the Antarctic Desert, tropical deserts represented by the Sahara Desert, cold deserts like the Gobi Desert, and coastal deserts such as the Atacama Desert. These deserts play an important role in understanding Earth's environment from the perspectives of climate, topography, and ecosystems.

desert geography climate topography nature environment
code slug name description areaKm2 countries location type
01 antarctic-desert Antarctic Desert The world's largest desert, a polar ice desert. 14200000 ["Antarctica"] Antarctica Polar Desert
02 arctic-desert Arctic Desert The second largest desert in the world, a polar desert. 13900000 ["USA (Alaska)","Canada","Greenland (Denmark)","Iceland","Norway","Sweden","Finland","Russia"] Arctic Circle Polar Desert
03 sahara-desert Sahara Desert The world's largest hot desert. 9200000 ["Algeria","Chad","Egypt","Libya","Mali","Mauritania","Morocco","Niger","Sudan","Tunisia","Western Sahara"] North Africa Subtropical Desert
04 great-australian-desert Great Australian Desert A vast desert region covering the Australian continent. 2700000 ["Australia"] Central and Western Australia Subtropical Desert
05 arabian-desert Arabian Desert The largest desert in Asia, spanning the Arabian Peninsula. 2330000 ["Iraq","Jordan","Kuwait","Oman","Qatar","Saudi Arabia","UAE","Yemen"] Arabian Peninsula Subtropical Desert
06 gobi-desert Gobi Desert Asia's largest cold desert. 1295000 ["China","Mongolia"] China and Mongolia Cold Winter Desert
07 kalahari-desert Kalahari Desert A semi-desert region in Southern Africa. 900000 ["Botswana","Namibia","South Africa","Angola"] Southern Africa Semi-Desert
08 patagonian-desert Patagonian Desert The world's southernmost desert. 673000 ["Argentina","Chile"] Southern South America Cold Winter Desert
09 syrian-desert Syrian Desert A subtropical desert spread across the Middle East. 500000 ["Iraq","Jordan","Saudi Arabia","Syria"] Middle East Subtropical Desert
10 great-basin-desert Great Basin Desert The largest desert in North America. 492000 ["United States"] Western United States Cold Winter Desert
11 atacama-desert Atacama Desert The driest desert in the world. 105000 ["Chile","Peru","Bolivia","Argentina"] Northern Chile Cool Coastal Desert
12 taklamakan-desert Taklamakan Desert The largest desert in China. 270000 ["China"] Xinjiang, China Cold Winter Desert
13 thar-desert Thar Desert The largest desert in the Indian subcontinent. 200000 ["India","Pakistan"] India and Pakistan Subtropical Desert
14 namib-desert Namib Desert A coastal desert in Namibia. 80000 ["Angola","Namibia","South Africa"] Southwest African Coast Cool Coastal Desert

A list of major deserts distributed across the Earth.