Quick Quiz: Deserts

Question: Where is the Atacama Desert?

Answer: A cool, arid region in northern Chile, the Atacama Desert is approximately 600 to 700 miles (1,000 to 1,100 km) long from north to south.

Question: Where is the Gobi desert?

Answer: The Gobi is a very large desert and semidesert region of Central Asia. Its name (from Mongolian gobi, meaning “waterless place”) stretches across huge portions of Mongolia and China.

Question: What is the highest point in the Sahara?

Answer: Mount Koussiis the highest summit in the Sahara at 11,204 feet (3,415 metres). It is situated 109 miles (176 km) north-northwest of Faya in the Tibesti massif of northwestern Chad. It is an extinct volcano with a crater approximately 12 miles (19 km) wide and 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) deep.

Question: What is the largest desert in the world?

Answer: The Sahara (from Arabic ṣaḥrāʾ, “desert”) is the largest desert in the world. Filling nearly all of northern Africa, it measures approximately 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from east to west and 800 to 1,200 miles (1,300 to 1,900 km) from north to south and has a total area of some 3,320,000 square miles (8,600,000 square km).