Sahara 9,065,000 km²
The world's largest desert, with an area of \u200b\u200babout 9,065,000 km² - slightly less area United States of America. The Sahara is located in North Africa, on the territory of more than ten states (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan). The Sahara does not lend itself to categorization within one type of desert, although the sandy-rocky type is predominant.
In the Sahara, about 160 thousand mirages are observed annually (an optical phenomenon in the atmosphere: the reflection of light by the boundary between layers of air that are sharply different in density. For an observer, such a reflection consists in the fact that, together with a distant object (or a part of the sky), its virtual image is visible, shifted relative subject.). They are stable and wandering, vertical and horizontal. Even special maps of caravan routes have been compiled with an assessment of the places where mirages are usually observed ..
Arabian Desert... 2,330,000 km²
The Arabian Desert is located on the Arabian Peninsula, located in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, occupies part of Iraq, Syria, southern and eastern Jordan. The vast expanses of the Arabian Desert are occupied by moving sand dunes and massifs of sand, in its center is Rub 'al-Kali, one of the largest sand massifs in the world. Much of the territory is uninhabited due to frequent sand and dust storms and strong winds, high temperatures with the usual for deserts with large daily amplitudes.The temperature range is 40-50 ° C in summer, the average temperature in winter is 5-15 ° C, although it can drop to 0 ° C. 
Gobi... 1,166,000 km²
A vast region in Central Asia (in the territories of Mongolia and China), characterized by desert and semi-desert landscapes. The Gobi stretches from the Altai and Tien Shan mountains in the east to the North China plateau in the west; in the north, the Gobi passes into the steppes of Mongolia; in the south, the region is bounded by the Nanshan and Altintag mountains and the Yellow River. The Gobi are made up of several geographic regions: Trans-Altai Gobi, Mongolian Gobi, Alashan Gobi, Gashun Gobi and Dzungar Gobi. The word "gobi" is of Mongolian origin and means "waterless place", this word in Central Asia denotes generally desert and semi-desert landscapes. The Gobi desert is the largest desert in Asia. 
Australian desert... 647,000 km²
Deserts got a huge territory of Australia, almost half of the continent. Much of the Australian desert to the west is located on a huge plateau 200 m above sea level. Some deserts rise even higher, up to 600 m. Difficult relief divides the giant Australian desert into several autonomous ones. The largest of them, Big Sandy desert, is located in the northwestern part of the continent, to the south is the vast Great Victoria Desert. In the northern part of the Great Sandy Desert, the sands are red-brown in color, other areas are covered not with sand, but with dark gravel and pebbles.
Among the sandy deserts, the largest is the Arunta Desert, or the Simpson Desert. It is located in the central part of the continent, closer to the west:
desert Arunta 
simpson desert
Great Sandy Desert
Kalahari... 600,000 km²
Desert in South Africa within the states of Botswana, South Africa and Namibia. IN recent times, by increasing the area, invades the territory of Angola, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The Kalahari area is about 600 thousand km2. The Kalahari climate is arid with a summer maximum precipitation and mild winters, with aridity increasing towards the southeast. Precipitation (up to 500 mm) is confined to the summer period (November - April), but its value varies considerably both in time and in area. The Kalahari is one of the hottest regions in South Africa. The average maximum temperature is plus 29 °, and the average minimum temperature is plus 12 ° 
Karakum... 350,000 km²
Sandy desert in the south of Central Asia, covering most of Turkmenistan. The area is 350,000 km². The desert comprises the Zaunguz Karakum, Central Karakum, Lowland Karakum and South-Eastern Karakum.
Chocolate candies are named after this desert. 
On our blue planet Earth, there are many areas painted in the yellow color of heat and drought - they are called deserts. About a third of the land surface consists of different types deserts with very little rainfall and vegetation. Some of them formed naturally over millions of years, while others appeared in just a couple of decades due to rash human actions. Some of them are sandy and others are salty; some hot, others cold.
The desert is an incredibly dangerous and difficult terrain to survive. But here's what is surprising: animals are found in only a few of the deserts, and people have established settlements in almost all of them, farm and even grow food for export! Each such arid area is somehow unique and beautiful in its own way. We present to you the top 6 deserts of our world.
1 The Atacama Desert (Spanish Desierto de Atacama) is a sparsely populated area in Chile, South America... This plateau, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Andean mountains, practically does not rain. Due to its unusually low annual rainfall (less than 1 mm), this desert is often called the driest and harshest in the world. This plateau is located on a gigantic territory, stretching for about 1 thousand km ². It is comparable in size to some states, for example, Iceland.
Not surprisingly, in such a vast area, precipitation falls unevenly, if at all! This desert is so dry that some parts of it have not had water for more than several hundred years, and in the most severe areas, the weather stations have not noticed even a slight increase in humidity. And this is for the entire history of weather research in the region! Unlike other famous deserts such as the Sahara, the Atacama is quite cold. The desert stretches along the Chilean coast near the Pacific Ocean, the largest and oldest in the world, and lies at the high altitude of the Andean mountains (over 6800 m), on which glaciers do not form! This aridity and almost complete absence of snow is due to the fact that passing through Pacific the cold stream (Peruvian current) prevents precipitation.
It's hard to believe, but the desert is literally teeming with life - more than two hundred species of living creatures can be found on its territory (of course, these are mainly different types of lizards). What is even more surprising, in such harsh conditions, at a huge altitude of 3000 meters above sea level, not only insects and reptiles survive, but there is a tiny town of Antagofasta!
2
It is believed that the Sahara is the most great desert all over the world, but this is not entirely true. It is the third largest desert after the Arctic and Antarctic. This unimaginably huge space covers an area almost equal to half of Africa (8.7 million km²). The Sahara is on the maps of eleven African countries! 
This desert is also considered the most severe in terms of climate. The terrain is so dry that in some parts of it it does not rain for several years, even for decades, and if it does, it does not rain in very small quantities. Sandstorms and severe temperature fluctuations between night and day are some of the biggest problems in the area and are caused by winds coming here from the Arabian Peninsula. As the wind moves southwest, the air in the desert warms up, dissipating moisture that may have been raining. These same winds lift sand and swirl into sandstorms. The speed of such a wind can exceed 50 ms. Dehydrated air instantly heats up, and just as instantly, as soon as the sun sets over the horizon, it becomes icy.
Of course, in such difficult conditions it is extremely difficult to survive, and there are very few people living in the incredibly vast territory of the Sahara Desert. They all settled on small islands of greenery along the banks of the Nile. According to recent estimates, there are only about 2.5 million such people.
3 Libyan Desert. This desert, like the Sahara, is located in Africa, west of the majestic Nile River, in the eastern part of Libya, Egypt and Sudan, and covers an area of \u200b\u200babout 2 million km ².
The Libyan desert is called the hottest desert on the planet, it is here that researchers noted the highest air temperature on Earth! Its tropical climate and almost unbearable dry heat of at least 35 ° C, with daily temperature fluctuations of 15 ° -16 ° C, are world famous. In July, temperatures are usually close to 50 ° C, and in rocky areas generally reach 100 ° C! As in the Sahara, terrible sandstorms and "dry fog" rise here, very unusual a natural phenomenon... On days of such fog, dust seems to freeze in the air, visibility is critically reduced.
Even in such conditions, there are settlements of people who live in oases, generated by groundwater close to the surface of the earth. They are engaged in animal husbandry and grow date palms for export.
4 The Namib Desert is called the most ancient desert in the world. This desert can be called coastal, as it is located along the southwestern coast of the African continent, near the Atlantic Ocean. It stretches for 2000 km and crosses the state of Angola, Namibia and South Africa... It is very difficult to imagine this, but this desert has existed for about 80 million years, it began to form in prehistoric antiquity, at a time when dinosaurs existed on our planet.
Many travelers consider Namib to be one of the most picturesque deserts in the world. Here, over millions of years, landscapes of indescribable beauty with giant dunes have been formed; In addition, this area, where living conditions are not as harsh as in other deserts, is home to many amazing animals such as rhinos, antelopes, zebras, impalas, lions and elephants. In some parts of the desert, real safari tours are organized especially for tourists. As part of these tours, you can see all of these animals in their usual habitat, as well as climb one of the dunes and admire the desert from an unusually high altitude.
5 The Uyuni Desert is not at all like the sandy deserts described above. This is an amazing saline plateau, and, judging by the estimates of experts, it is very ancient. About 40,000 years ago, this place was a high-mountain lake, where streams from the Andes peaks flowed. However, over time, the lake has irrevocably evaporated under the influence climatic conditions and insufficient drainage of the lake. Now it is a deserted and very salty area of \u200b\u200bmore than 10 thousand km².
6 Aralkum is a desert that all people on earth need to know about, regardless of where they live and what they do. This desert appeared on the beautiful face of the Earth not in millions of years, but in the shortest possible time, in our time. Aralkum was formed on the site of the majestic Aral Sea, with an area of \u200b\u200b68,000 km², which gradually dried up due to the human factor. “Man is the master of nature”: this is exactly what the Soviet leadership thought and decided to divert the course of the rivers flowing into the sea to the other side to irrigate giant cotton fields. This led to the monstrous desertification of the reservoir, today only 10 percent of its former territory remains. In Uzbekistan, apart from Aralkum, there are two more deserts formed in such an unnatural way - Kyzylkum and Ustyurt.
Unfortunately, this desert is not only a graveyard for once sunken ships, it also poisons nature with its toxic secretions. The fact is that this territory was abundantly watered with poisonous means for the destruction of insects, and poisoned dust is still carried by the wind to the very different corners the world.
Desert. How much has been said about her! How many civilizations are buried under its sands. How many secrets have not yet been discovered, rest in its endless latitudes !!!
Today we will plunge into the world of amazing spaces. To the world of the DESERT and not just the largest desert.
1 The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world
The real Queen of the Desert is the largest desert in the world. Its area is 9,065,000 square meters, which is only a few less territoryoccupied by the United States of America. The Sahara is located in northern Africa and occupies part of the territory of states such as Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan and Western Sahara. When mirages are mentioned, it is certainly worth remembering the Sahara, since here it is the undisputed leader. During the year, from 100 to 200 thousand mirages happen on its territory. There are even special "mirage" maps, which indicate the places where they are most likely to appear.
2
Its size is 2,330,000 sq. km. This is the second largest desert, which is located in the territories of states such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Jordan. Much of the desert is uninhabited due to frequent dust storms and strong winds. In addition, there is a large fluctuation in daily temperatures. In the afternoon, an egg left in the sand can turn into a fried egg within 10 minutes. At night, the stones crack from the cold.
3 Gobi
A desert located in Mongolia and China. It starts from the Altai and Tien Shan mountains and ends with the steppes of Mongolia and the Yellow River. The Gobi territory is 1,166,000 km2. Translated from Mongolian Gobi means "a dry place".
4
Australia is a country of kangaroos and funny koalas. Country of cockatoos and endless beaches, where it is so pleasant to relax! And at the same time, almost half of the continent is given over to the power of deserts, the total territory of which is 647,000 km2. Despite the fact that the desert is, in our opinion, a collection of sand, the Australian desert is something special. Here you can find both the usual sandy deserts and stone ones, the entire space of which is covered with fine gravel. In addition, the Australian Desert is also famous for its red dunes located in the Simpson Desert. Some of them are as much as 40 meters high !!!
When we hear the word Kalahari, which means "painful" in Berber, we think of Africa. Starting from Botswana and Namibia and ending with South Africa, this famous desert is spread. The territory occupied by the Kalahari, or as it is called locals Curry Curry is 600,000 km2. In addition, as a result of alluvium, its area is constantly increasing, taking away more and more new areas from civilization. Countries that have become the next victims of the painful desert include countries such as Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
6 Karakum
Translated from Turkic, "Karakum" is translated as "black sands". The territory occupied by this desert is 350,000 km2, and the height of the sandy ridges in some places reaches 60 meters! The Karakum Desert occupies most of Turkmenistan. Small vegetation prevails here; the locals use the desert as a pasture for livestock.
7 Takla Makan
Desert located in Central Asia and occupying 337,600 km2. In 2008, record low temperatures were observed on its territory, and in some places there was even snowfall!
8 Salar de Uyuni
The world's greatest salt desert located in Bolivia. According to experts, the amount of salt contained in its territory is estimated at 10 billion tons. When it rains, salt dissolves in water and turns the desert into the world's largest salt "mirror". This is due to the fact that salt water has a different refractive index, and when light enters, it is reflected, similar to the reflection in an ordinary mirror.
9 Atacama
The largest desert located in Chile. It is considered the driest place on earth. Plants growing on its territory have developed special mechanisms for survival in this harsh climate. In dry periods, they even abandon such usual plant functions as growth and reproduction.
10
The only ice desert in the world. Its area is about 14,107,000 km². Contrary to popular belief, Antarctica is the driest place on earth! This is due to the fact that intense cold literally "dries up" moisture, and the amount of precipitation there does not exceed 4 cm per year. Interesting fact: in 1983, the lowest temperature was recorded on the territory of Antarctica, which was minus 89 degrees Celsius.
Of the existing deserts, the largest in terms of area can be distinguished. There are many tropical deserts. If we take into account the sandy deserts, then the largest of them is the Sahara.
Large tropical deserts
Leading position among tropical deserts, near the Sahara Desert. Therefore, she is called the Queen of the Desert. The area is almost nine million one hundred thousand square kilometers, which is not much less than the United States. The location of the desert is North Africa.A large area is occupied by the Arabian Desert. From the name it is clear that it stretches across the territory of the Arabian Peninsula, but also affects Jordan, Egypt and Syria, as well as Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Its territory is two million three hundred thirty thousand square kilometers. Due to frequent strong winds, sharp fluctuations in daily temperatures and dust storms, more than half of the entire territory of the desert remains uninhabited. Surprisingly, during the day, the temperature is so high that an egg can be fried on the sand for ten minutes, while at night there is intolerable cold.
The Gobi Desert runs partly through China and Mongolia. If you translate its name from the Mongolian language, it will sound like "waterless place". The area occupied by the Gobi is one million three hundred thousand square kilometers.
A slightly smaller area, in comparison with the Gobi, is occupied by the Kalahari Desert - about nine hundred thousand square kilometers. It stretches across the territory of countries such as Botswana, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia. In the Berber language, the word "kalahari" is translated as "painful". Locals call this desert Curry-Curry. Its territory is not constant; it is known that it grows as a result of alluvium.
In Australia, the most significant desert is Victoria. It covers an area of \u200b\u200bsix hundred and forty-seven square kilometers - this is almost half of the entire continent. The desert is unusual in that, along with sandy, it is also rocky, where huge areas are covered with fine gravel. There are also famous red dunes there. Their height sometimes reaches forty meters. The Great Sandy Desert is also in Australia. Its name is confirmed by the size of the area it occupies - it is four hundred thousand square kilometers. There are two more deserts in Australia, each with an area of \u200b\u200babout one hundred and fifty thousand square kilometers - these are the Gibson and Simpson deserts.
Partially Mexico and America are crossed by the Chihuahua Desert. Its territory is an area of \u200b\u200bfour hundred and fifty thousand square kilometers. Nearby there is the Sonoran Desert, an area of \u200b\u200bthree hundred and ten square kilometers. About two hundred thousand square kilometers is the territory of the Thar Desert. It stretches across the territories of countries such as Pakistan and India.
The largest desert in Asia
Among the Asian deserts, the Gobi Desert occupies the leading position in size. Its landscape is amazing and diverse - these are mountains and dunes, plains and dunes. The territory is located in both Mongolia and China. The desert is waterless and extremely dry. Its endlessness captures. 
Gobi is practically the very center of Asia. Desert areas remain completely dry for about sixty-five million years. The dune sands of the desert make up only three percent of its area, but hamadas, in other words, stony and clayey deserts, occupy vast territories.
The largest desert in Africa
As you know, the largest desert on the African continent is the Sahara. It is located in the northern part, and its territory affects states such as Egypt, Niger, Algeria and Mali. Also, the Sahara passes partly through the territory of Libya, Morocco and Chad, the territory of Western Sahara and Sudan. She is also the leader in the number of emerging mirages. There is even a map of mirages to help determine where they are most likely and most likely to appear. 
It is impossible to attribute the Sahara to any one type, it does not lend itself to categorization, but we can say that the sandy-stony type predominates.
The largest desert in the world
Among the hottest deserts in the world, the first place is undoubtedly behind the Sahara, but if compared in area, the largest is the snowy desert of Antarctica. It is she who is recognized not only as the largest, but also the coldest, as well as the driest among all other deserts on the planet. It is polar in type. Its area is about fourteen million square kilometers.This polar desert has been little studied, and what is there under eternal ice nobody knows. Scientists have been studying the fauna and flora of Antarctica for many years. Belgica Antarctica is the name of the wingless midge, which is the largest terrestrial animal in Antarctica. Its length does not exceed one centimeter three millimeters.
To study the snowy desert, scientists examine ice cores - these are long cylinders of ice produced by drilling into an ice surface. So they manage to go back in time for thousands of years, to obtain information about the Earth's climate of that period.
But the coldest place on Earth is in Antarctica ..
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Deserts are vast natural zones of both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, subdivided into several types according to their composition, occupying more than 16.5 million km 2, occupying more than 11 percent of all land. There are sandy and saline, clayey and stony, and even snowy deserts on Earth.
Sahara - a huge desert with an area of \u200b\u200b8600 km 2, located on the territory of 11 states. Despite the more common sandy type of territories, the surface of the Sahara does not belong to one specific category of deserts, since its areas cover all desert types, with the exception of snowy ones, which are a separate natural zone. Despite the widespread opinion about the waterlessness of deserts, the Nile flows through the Sahara, the tributaries of which form a stable permanent transit watercourse.
These vast, often lifeless spaces are inhabited by an estimated 2.5 million people, usually local indigenous peoples and ethnic groups, mostly with a closed nomadic lifestyle, depending on seasonal changes.
2nd place 
Libyan Desert covers an area of \u200b\u200b2 million km 2, spreading over the territory of three states. Quite numerous oases are inhabited by the Berber and Libyan peoples, representing point centers of life, the main occupation of which is the cultivation of grain crops and fruit trees, as well as cattle breeding. On the territory of the Libyan Desert, there are numerous outlets of groundwater, which significantly affect the life of the entire natural area.
3rd place 
Nubian desert mostly located on the territory of Sudan, to a lesser extent - Egypt, its total area is 1240 thousand km 2. In the northern part, sandy-stony lands smoothly turn into the Arabian desert. Climate features in this natural area become the reason for the lack of precipitation for several years. The maximum temperature in these places reaches 53 degrees. The Nubian Desert is home to up to 2.5 million people belonging to more than 20 different peoples.
4th place 
Gobi Desert , with an area of \u200b\u200b1.3 million km 2, occupies the vast territories of China and Mongolia. For several years, the Chinese government has been actively fighting against the rapid advancement of the desert, deciding to carry out artificial landscaping. Climatic changes in the Gobi Desert reach 100 degrees difference, with summer temperatures within 55 ° C, winter temperatures can reach -55 ° C.
Due to its length and the difference in climatic biological conditions, the desert is not only actively populated, but has economic significance based on agriculture, mining natural resources and animal husbandry.
Desolate north american highlands The large pool covers an area of \u200b\u200bmore than 500 thousand km 2, which together with mountain ranges reach a value of 1036 thousand km 2. This is one of the driest places on the continent, representing almost lifeless spaces, which are of particular interest to tourists who prefer to spend time in harmony with nature. But in addition to the main uninhabited territory in the Great Basin is the city of Salt Lake City with a population of more than 180 thousand, which became the capital of the Olympic Games in 2002.
Sandy Rub al-Khali Desert stretches for 650 thousand km 2, occupying the territory of four states located in the Middle East. In rare cases, almost completely lifeless spaces serve for the extraction of gypsum, quartz and gravel, the absence of vegetation and water makes it impossible for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry. This is one of the hottest and driest deserts in the world with the most constant climatic parameters, so the temperature of 47 ° C is stable for July and August.
