WhereIsAtlas · Sahara

Where Is the Sahara Desert?

The world's largest hot desert — 9.2 million square kilometers across northern Africa.

The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert, spanning about 9.2 million square kilometers across 11 northern African countries. It is the third-largest desert overall and a landscape of sand dunes, rock and extremes.

The largest hot desert

The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, covering about 9.2 million square kilometers across northern Africa. It is the third-largest desert overall, behind only the cold deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic.

Where it is

The Sahara spans 11 countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara. It stretches from the Atlantic coast in the west to the Red Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean in the north to the Sahel in the south.

More than sand

The Sahara's famous face is rolling sand dunes, but much of it is actually bare rock, gravel plains and salt flats. It is a landscape of extremes — blistering days and cold nights — shaped by wind, heat and great age.

Not always a desert

The Sahara was not always a desert. Thousands of years ago it was greener and wetter, with lakes and grasslands. It has expanded and contracted as the Earth's climate shifted, and it continues to change.

Where the Sahara is now

The Sahara is a defining feature of Africa and one of the planet's most iconic landscapes. It remains vast, stark and beautiful — a sea of sand and stone that has shaped trade routes, cultures and wildlife for millennia. For a 'where is it' answer, it lies across the top of Africa, the world's largest hot desert.

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