The Sahara is usually described as the world's largest desert, but because a desert is defined by rainfall rather than temperature, the entire continent of Antarctica is technically the largest desert on Earth, with parts of its interior having received n

The Sahara is usually described as the world's largest desert, but because a desert is defined by rainfall rather than temperature, the entire continent of Antarctica is technically the largest desert on Earth, with parts of its interior having received n

The Sahara is the standard answer to the question “what is the world’s largest desert,” and it is also wrong. The Sahara is the largest hot desert on Earth, covering roughly 9.2 million square kilometres of North Africa. By the standard scientific definition, however, a desert is not a place where it is hot. It is a place where it does not rain. National Geographic’s reference page on deserts puts it directly: “A desert is actually just a place …