The Sahara desert, located in northern Africa, is the largest hot desert in the world. The desert covers over 3 million square miles from the Atlantic ocean to the Red Sea. It crosses Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Niger, Mali, Chad, Sudan, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. The large area consists of many landscapes, from sand dunes to gravel plains, but little water. Political tensions in the countries it covers means that access to the Sahara can be limited in certain areas, especially for foreign tourists.
The U.S. is home to the second hottest desert in the world, Death Valley. Spanning California and Nevada, Death Valley National Park is part of the Mojave desert and covers over 5,000 square miles with diverse scenery, from salt flats to rock outcrops. The Badwater section of the desert, located in the 200-square-mile salt plain at the valley floor, is the lowest point in the U.S. Summer temperatures can rocket to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, so fall and winter tend to be the busiest tourist seasons.
The Thar desert lies mostly within India, although a small portion spills into Pakistan. Political relations between India and Pakistan are historically tense and tourists avoid border areas. The extreme desert has temperatures close to freezing in the winter and over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Only a small portion of the 77,000 square mile desert consists of dunes, with the remaining area covered in rock, salt and dirt.
The Dash-e Lut desert in Iran is a desolate area and, during the summer months, it can turn into one of the hottest and driest locations on earth. The heart of the salty area, also known as the Lout desert, is extremely dangerous and inhospitable, with windstorms and extreme temperatures. The general weather and political conditions make the area difficult for foreign tourists to tour.
The Arabian desert is around 900,000 square miles, covering most of Saudi Arabia, as well as parts of Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and Iraq. The middle of the hot area contains one of the biggest unbroken sand patches on earth. The weather patterns follow a typical desert routine of freezing nights and blazing days. The vast stretches of sand are dotted with small villages as well as major tourist cities, such as Abu Dhabi.
