Which continent is the largest desert on Earth?

Antarctica is the continent that contains the largest desert on Earth.

Although it is covered by ice, Antarctica qualifies as a desert because it receives very little precipitation. Most of the continent gets less than 200 millimetres of precipitation annually, and some inland regions receive almost none for years. By area, the Antarctic Desert is larger than the Sahara.

The continent is surrounded by the Southern Ocean and is centred on the South Pole. Its immense ice sheet contains roughly 90 percent of the world’s ice and about 60 percent of Earth’s fresh water by volume. The cold, dry interior is one of the harshest environments on the planet.

Many people associate deserts only with hot sand, but the defining feature is aridity, not temperature. The Sahara is the largest hot desert, while Antarctica is the largest desert overall. Greenland also contains a vast polar desert, but it is smaller than Antarctica.