List of deserts

This is a list of deserts sorted by the region of the world in which the desert is located.

Afro-Eurasia

Africa

• Kalahari Desert – a desert covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa
• Karoo Desert - a desert covering parts of southern South Africa
• Namib Desert – a desert in present-day Namibia
• Moçâmedes Desert - a desert located in southwest Angola near the border with Namibia just at north of the Namib Desert
• Danakil Desert – a desert lying in the Afar Triangle and covering northeastern Ethiopia, southern Eritrea, southern Djibouti and northwesternmost Somalia
  • Eritrean Coastal Desert - a desert lying along the southern part of the coast of Eritrea and the coast of Djibouti
• Guban Desert - a desert lying along the coast of northwestern Somalia
• Grand Bara Desert - a desert covering parts of south Djibouti
• Ogaden Desert - a desert region in southeastern Ethiopia and in northern and central Somalia
• Chalbi Desert – a desert in northern Kenya along the border with Ethiopia
• Nyiri Desert - a desert located in southern Kenya along the border with Tanzania
• Lompoul Desert - a desert lying in northwestern Senegal between Dakar and Saint-Louis
• Sahara Desert – Africa's largest desert and the world's largest hot desert which covers much of North Africa comprising:
  • Ténéré – a desert covering northeastern Niger and western Chad
  • Tanezrouft – a desert covering northern Mali, northwestern Niger as well as central and southern Algeria, at the west of the Hoggar Mountains
  • El Djouf - a desert which covers northeastern Mauritania and parts of northwestern Mali
  • Djurab Desert - a desert covering northern central Chad
  • Tin-Toumma Desert - a desert covering southeastern Niger, at the south of the Ténéré
  • Libyan Desert (also called Western Desert) – a desert covering eastern Libya, western Egypt and northwestern Sudan at the west of the Nile River
    • White Desert – a desert covering a part of western Egypt and located in Farafra, Egypt
  • Eastern Desert – a desert covering eastern Egypt and northeastern Sudan between the Nile River and the Red Sea
    • Nubian Desert – a desert covering northeastern Sudan between the Nile River and the Red Sea
    • Bayuda Desert – a desert covering eastern Sudan located just at the southwest of the Nubian Desert
  • Sinai Desert – a desert located on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt
    • Blue Desert – a desert covering a part of the Sinai Desert near the Red Sea and located around Dahab, Egypt
  • Atlantic Coastal Desert – a desert lying along the western coast of the Sahara Desert and occupies a narrow strip in Western Sahara and Mauritania

Eurasia

Asia

• Al Khatim Desert - a desert near Abu Dhabi
• Arabian Desert – desert complex on the Arabian Peninsula comprising:
  • Al-Dahna Desert - a desert being the main central division of the Arabian Desert and covering parts of Saudi Arabia
  • Empty Quarter (Rub' al Khali)- the world's largest sand desert and covering much of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen
  • Nefud Desert - a desert in northern part of the Arabian Peninsula
  • Ramlat al-Sab`atayn - a desert in north-central Yemen
  • Wahiba Sands - a desert covering great parts of Oman
• Cholistan – a desert in Pakistan
• Dasht-e-Margo – a desert in southwestern Afghanistan
• Dasht-e Kavir – a desert in central Iran
• Dasht-e Lut – a large salt desert in southeastern Iran
• Gobi – a desert in Mongolia and China
• Indus Valley Desert – a desert located in Pakistan
• Judaean Desert – a desert in eastern Israel and the West Bank
• Kara Kum – a large Central Asian desert
• Kharan desert – a desert located in Pakistan
• Kyzyl Kum – a desert in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
• Lop Desert – a desert in China
• Ordos – a desert in northern China
• Taklamakan – a desert located in China
• Thal Desert – a desert in Pakistan
• Thar Desert – a desert in India and Pakistan
• Maranjab Desert – a desert in central Iran
• Negev – a desert located in southern Israel

Europe

• Accona Desert – a semi-desert in central Italy
• Bardenas Reales – a semi-desert in Navarre, Spain (455 km²)
• Błędowska Desert – a desert located in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland (32 km²)
• Deliblatska Peščara – a desert located in Vojvodina, Serbia (300 km²)
• Highlands of Iceland – the interior plateau of Iceland; not a desert by climate, but effectively one because precipitation penetrates the volcanic soil so quickly that the land is infertile
• Ilhas Selvagens and Ilhas Desertas - two small archipelagos located between the island of Madeira, Portugal and the Canary Islands, Spain
• Larzac - a semi-desert in the Massif Central in France
• Melnik Desert Canyon- A sandy canyon surrounded town in the southwestern tip of Bulgaria: where sand dunes, sandstone formations, sand pyramids and an overall canyon has formed while pertaining to other desert-like climate.
• Monegros Desert – a semi-desert in Aragón, Spain
• Oleshky Sands – a desert located in Ukraine near Askania-Nova biosphere reserve (~185 km², 15 km in diameter)
• Oltenian Sahara – a desert spanning approximately 80,000 hectares or 800 km² in the Romanian historical province of Oltenia
• Santorini and Anafi, both islands located in the Aegean Sea, possess the only hot desert climates (BWh) in Europe, according to the Köppen climate classification.
• The Stone Desert - A rather medium-sized European desert phenomenon with dunes, sandstone formations, a desert type vegetation habitat and a vast desert-like climate found on the western Varna Province border of North East Bulgaria.
• Ryn Desert - a desert in western Kazakhstan and southeastern Russia
• Tabernas Desert – a desert in Almería, Spain (280 km²)

Americas

North America

Main article: List of North American deserts

• Central Valley of California (which is divided into the Sacramento Valley in the north, and the San Joaquin Valley in the south) – this area has largely been transformed, due to irrigation canals, to an agricultural area. It is technically a semi-arid climate
• Chihuahua Desert a desert in Mexico and United States
• Great Basin Desert
  • Black Rock Desert
  • Death Valley
• Mojave Desert a desert in United States
• Sonoran Desert a desert in United States and Mexico
  • Colorado Desert

South America

• Atacama Desert – a desert in Chile and Peru
• La Guajira Desert – a desert in northern Colombia and Venezuela
• Monte Desert – in Argentina, a smaller desert above the Patagonian Desert
• Patagonian Desert – the largest desert in the Americas, located in Argentina and Chile
• Sechura Desert – a desert located south of the Piura Region of Peru
• Jalapão A desert park in Tocantins,Brazil There are desert in some locals

Oceania

Australia

See also: Deserts of Australia

• Central Desert – a central Australian desert
• Gibson Desert – a central Australian desert
• Great Sandy Desert – a northwestern Australian desert
• Great Victoria Desert – the biggest desert in Australia
• Little Sandy Desert – a western Australian desert
• Simpson Desert – a central Australian desert
• Strzelecki Desert – a south-central Australian desert
• Tanami Desert – a northern Australian desert

Zealandia

• Rangipo Desert – a barren desert-like plateau (with 1.5-2.5 m/yr rainfall) on the North Island Volcanic Plateau in New Zealand

Polar regions

• Antarctica Desert – the largest desert in the world
• Arctic Desert – the second largest "desert" in the world, though it is frozen ocean, so (like the rest of this section) not a desert climate in any conventional sense
• Greenland – mostly covered by ice, like Antarctica
• North American Arctic – a large tundra in North America
• Russian Arctic – a large tundra in Russia

See also

• Desert
• Desertification
• List of deserts by area
• Tundra