Deserts

Arabian Desert

The vast sand sea of the Arabian Peninsula, home to the largest unbroken sands on Earth

Atacama Desert

The driest place on Earth, a high Chilean desert where some places have never seen rain

Chihuahuan Desert

The largest desert in North America, a high grassland-and-shrub basin straddling the Rio Grande

Gobi Desert

A cold rain-shadow desert of Mongolia and northern China, famed for its dinosaur fossils

Great Victoria Desert

Australia's largest desert, a sweep of red sand and spinifex in the continent's heart

Kalahari Desert

A semi-arid sand basin of southern Africa, more savanna than empty waste

Mojave Desert

A high North American desert of Joshua trees and the searing floor of Death Valley

Namib Desert

The world's oldest desert, where towering dunes meet the Atlantic fog on Africa's coast

Patagonian Desert

Argentina's windswept cold-desert steppe at the southern tip of the Americas

Sahara

The world's largest hot desert, an ocean of sand and stone across North Africa

Sonoran Desert

The lush North American desert of the towering saguaro cactus

Taklamakan Desert

A vast cold sand sea in western China, ringed by mountains and crossed by the Silk Road

Thar Desert

The Great Indian Desert, a densely peopled sand region straddling India and Pakistan