Drylands dominate much of our planet. While lush rainforests and alpine peaks often draw the spotlight, it’s the deserts, those vast, windswept expanses of sand, stone, and scrub, that shape nearly a third of the world’s land. From the iconic Sahara to the cold deserts of Central Asia, these regions are more than barren voids. They support unique ecosystems, Indigenous cultures, and, more recently, vast renewable energy projects. According to the World Atlas of Desertification (WAD), deserts—defined as hyper-arid zones with minimal rainfall—make up roughly 6.6% of Earth’s land area, while over 40% is classified as broader drylands. Here are some of the planet’s countries that host the largest expanses of true desert, based on ecological classification and satellite mapping.

A version of this article originally appeared in Condé Nast Traveller India.

Methodology

This list draws on desert area estimates from the World Atlas of Desertification, published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in collaboration with UNEP, which provides global definitions of desert types and aridity zones. Key geographic boundaries were supplemented by data from UNEP-GRID and NASA Earth Observations, which help delineate hyper-arid regions and large desert landscapes. To ensure accuracy at the national level, we also consulted national geospatial reports and climate zone mappings, identifying the countries with the largest desert areas within their borders or shared transboundary zones. We focus on hyper-arid desert regions, not broader drylands, and attribute desert portions by country based on known coverage of major deserts like the Sahara, Arabian, Gobi, and others.

1. Algeria: 1.5 million square kilometers (about 579,000 square miles)

Up to 80% of Algeria’s land area is made up of the Sahara.

Noureddine Belfethi/Getty

Algeria is home to the largest portion of the Sahara Desert, covering over 80% of the country. This makes Algeria the country with the largest desert area in the world, with more than 1.5 million square kilometers of arid land. The terrain ranges from sand dunes in the Grand Erg Oriental to rocky plateaus and seasonal salt flats. Despite the extreme climate, desert towns like Tamanrasset and the oases of the M’zab Valley have supported human settlement for centuries.

2. Saudi Arabia: 1.3 million square kilometers (about 502,000 square miles)

Saudi Arabia’s Rub’ al Khali, or “Empty Quarter,” is the largest uninterrupted sand desert in the world.

TARIQ_M_1/Getty