When you heard the word “desert”, what immediately comes to mind? If you are like most people, “desert” evokes images of large expanses of sand, high temperatures, and shrubby vegetation. To some extent such images are accurate. Most deserts have lots of sand and high temperatures and at least during the daytime. So, let’s get into the top 5 list!
- Antarctica
Antarctica is the largest and the driest continent in the world. Little snow or rain falls on the continent, but because it is so cold, the small amount of precipitation that does not melt. It is located around the South Pole and also the windiest, and coldest continent on earth. There are no countries in Antarctica; the continent is governed by an international treaty.
2. Arctic
It is a terrestrial ecoregion that covers the island groups of Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, Severny Island and Severnaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean, above 75 degrees north latitude. Arctic temperature is so low that the ocean is always frozen. The extremely low temperatures also mean that the Arctic air isn’t able to hold moisture. The air is therefore as dry as you’d find in a desert. The end result is that the Arctic receives very little precipitation which is rain or snowfall. In fact, the Arctic receives about the same amount of precipitation as the Sahara, and the Arctic considered as a cold desert.
3. Sahara
Sahara desert is in Africa. The name ‘Sahara’ is derived from Arabic, which means ‘the greatest desert’. It is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third-largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic, which are both cold desert. The Sahara is roughly the size of the continental United States. The boundaries of the desert are the Red Sea to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean/ Atlas Mountains to the west.
4. Arabian Desert
A great desert region of extreme southwestern Asia that occupies almost the entire Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian Desert is a vast desert wilderness in Western Asia. It stretches from Yemen to the Persian Gulf and Oman to Jordan and Iraq. In the northwest, the desert extends into Jordan. A geographical location of the Arabian Desert is quite simple as it occupies almost all of the Arabian Peninsula bounded by the Syrian Desert to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Arabian Sea to the south and The Gulf or known as Arabian Gulf. The Arabian Desert appears as a vast expanse of light sand-colored terrain with an occasional indistinct line of escarpments or mountain ranges, black lava flows, or reddish systems of desert dunes stretching to the horizon. Camel trails crisscross the surface between watering places.
5. Gobi Desert
Gobi Desert is the 5th largest desert in the world and across the borderlands of northern China and southern Mongolia. The Gobi is overall a cold desert. In the Western mind, Asia’s Gobi Desert often evokes a sense of an alien world, a remote landmarked by awesome and arid landscapes, torrid summers, frigid winters, long-extinct life forms, striking modern life forms, epic adventure, a spiritual sanctuary, and unforgettable travel destinations. Due to the vast expanses of this land, there is an exhausting amount of driving involved in this Mongolian desert tour, which leaves little time to see the actual sites.
