Sahara Desert: The Sahara ( Arabic : الصحراء الكبرى , aṣ-ṣaḥrāʼ al-kubrá , 'the Great Desert') is a desert located on the African continent . It is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic. Its area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi) is comparable to the area of China or the United States . The name 'Sahara' is derived from a dialectal Arabic word for "desert", ṣaḥra ( صحرا / ). The desert comprises much of North Africe, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley...