Geography Quiz.io

THE SIZE CHALLENGE

10 Largest Deserts in Order

Not every desert is hot. Rank these ten desert regions by area, including the polar deserts, using the cited US government handbook's estimates.

No timer · Move the cards · Check your order

Equal published areas count as a tie. Either order earns the points.

Largest total area at the topDrag anywhere on a card to move it
  1. 1
    Great Victoria Desert
    Australia
  2. 2
    Sahara
    AlgeriaLibyaEgypt+8 more
  3. 3
    Great Basin Desert
    United States
  4. 4Polar region
    Antarctic Desert
  5. 5
    Kalahari
    BotswanaNamibiaSouth Africa
  6. 6
    Arabian Desert
    Saudi ArabiaOmanYemen+5 more
  7. 7
    Syrian Desert
    SyriaIraqJordan+1 more
  8. 8
    Gobi
    ChinaMongolia
  9. 9Polar region
    Arctic Desert
  10. 10
    Patagonian Desert
    ArgentinaChile

Area data and source

Uses the ten largest entries in the US Army/Marine Corps Desert Operations handbook (7 April 2021), Appendix A, table A-1. The table treats Arctic and Antarctic polar regions as deserts and lists individual Australian deserts separately.

These are broad, approximate geographic areas, not precisely surveyed borders. Other references group or define deserts differently and can give a different top ten. This game follows this handbook's list consistently.

Flags indicate countries and territories the desert extends into. Their order is a geographic cue, not a measured ranking of national shares. Western Sahara is a disputed territory. Polar deserts use a snowflake rather than a national flag.

The original table gives rounded square miles. Displayed values are converted to square kilometres and rounded to the nearest 1,000 km². Great Basin and Syrian have equal published areas: either order in their two tied positions is correct.

Only numerical data and place names from this US federal government publication are reused, not its artwork. Checked 14 September 2026.

Desert Operations (2021): Appendix A, table A-1, PDF page 134