Antarctica is the world’s largest desert by total area, including polar regions.
A desert is defined by very low precipitation, not by heat or sand. Antarctica receives little annual precipitation because its extremely cold air holds little moisture. Most of the continent gets less than 200 millimetres of precipitation each year, and some inland areas receive far less.
The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert, but Antarctica is larger overall, covering about 14 million square kilometres. Its ice sheet makes Antarctica appear unlike the familiar image of a desert, yet the climate classification fits because snowfall is scarce and evaporation is minimal.
Antarctica also contains the McMurdo Dry Valleys, one of Earth’s most extreme ice-free landscapes. The continent surrounds the South Pole and is governed internationally through the Antarctic Treaty System rather than belonging to a single country.