The 10 largest deserts on earth, ranked by area with the two polar ones at the top, and the town or road a traveller actually uses to reach each.
We ranked these ten by area, using the figures the standard desert tables publish, so the two polar deserts lead: a desert is defined by how little rain falls, not by sand or heat. Each pick names the gateway a visitor uses, from an expedition port to a sealed highway.
14.2 million km² of ice, the largest desert on earth by a wide margin and the driest continent. Most expedition ships sail from Ushuaia between November and March, crossing the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula.
13.9 million km², a polar desert across the far north of Europe, Asia and North America. Svalbard is the easiest corner to reach: scheduled flights from Oslo and Tromsø land at Longyearbyen, where tundra and glaciers start at the edge of town.
9.2 million km², the largest hot desert on earth, spread across North Africa. From Ouarzazate the road south follows the Draa valley to M'Hamid, the last town before the dunes of Erg Chigaga.
2.33 million km², nearly the whole Arabian Peninsula, and home to the Rub' al Khali, the Empty Quarter. Liwa Oasis is about 250km and two and a half hours from Abu Dhabi, with Moreeb Dune, the tallest in the UAE, 25km beyond it.
1.37 million km², the figure Geoscience Australia gives for the country's ten named deserts together, 18% of the mainland. The Great Victoria is the largest of them, and the Ghan leaves Adelaide for Alice Springs straight through the arid heart.
1.3 million km² across Mongolia and northern China, a cold desert of gravel plains more than sand. Fly from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad, then drive about 180km with a hired vehicle or a tour to the dunes of Khongoryn Els.
900,000 km² of red sand and grass across Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, dry enough to count as desert but green after summer rain. The Namibian side and its lodges are a few hours by road south and east of Windhoek.
673,000 km², the largest desert in Argentina, a windswept steppe in the rain shadow of the Andes. Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic coast is the usual base, for Península Valdés and the empty roads inland.
500,000 km² of stony plain shared by Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Jordan is the side to visit: Qusayr Amra, a UNESCO-listed Umayyad bathhouse with painted halls, stands about 85km east of Amman on the road to Azraq.
492,000 km², mostly in Nevada and Utah, a cold desert of basins and mountain ranges. Great Basin National Park, by the village of Baker, has Lehman Caves and bristlecone pines more than 4,000 years old; Salt Lake City is about 230 miles east.
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