It is the biggest desert of its kind in the world — almost as big as the entirety of the United States.
Despite its desolation, it is nevertheless home to millions of people and hundreds of species of plant and animal life. It is dry, hot, and inhospitable in a way that would be hard for many people on the planet to fathom, yet it is also a land of incredible life and diversity. Here’s what we know about the Sahara Desert.
What Is the Largest Desert in the World?
Probably the first thing worth knowing is that the Sahara is not, in actuality, the biggest desert on the planet. At their most basic, deserts are defined as areas that receive less than 10 inches of rain per year. By that measure, Antarctica is actually the largest desert on Earth, occupying an area of about 5.5 million square miles, with the Arctic coming in second, at nearly 5.4 million square miles.
