What is the largest desert in the world?

The Antarctic Desert is the largest desert in the world. It covers the Antarctic continent, where extremely low precipitation makes the landscape a desert even though most of it is buried beneath ice.

Deserts are defined primarily by dryness, not by heat or sand. Antarctica receives very little precipitation, especially in its interior, where falling snow accumulates slowly and remains frozen. About 98% of the continent is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, which is the largest ice sheet on Earth and stores most of the planet’s freshwater ice.

The Antarctic Desert is a polar desert, as is the much smaller Arctic Desert around the North Pole. The Sahara, Arabian and Gobi deserts are all famous hot or cold continental deserts, but they are smaller when measured by total area. Antarctica’s desert classification can surprise people because its ice makes it look like the opposite of a dry environment.

The Antarctic interior is among the driest, coldest and windiest places on Earth. Some parts, including the McMurdo Dry Valleys, receive almost no snowfall and have remained largely ice-free, creating landscapes that resemble Mars more than a typical snowy wilderness.