Saturday, August 29, 2026 Search My Trip EnglishChinese
World news · travel · culture
Taiwan The Taiwan Times
Taiwan's window to the world

Great American Desert

The term Great American Desert was used in the 19th century to describe the part of North America east of the Rocky Mountains to approximately the 100th meridian. It can be traced to Stephen H. Long's's 1820 scientific expedition which put the Great American Desert on the map. Today, the area is usually referred to as the High Plains, and the original term is sometimes used to describe the arid region of North America, which includes parts of northwestern Mexico and the American Southwest.

Location: Mexico.

Desert data from Wikidata (CC0).

Other major deserts

  1. Sahara9,200,000 km²
  2. Gobi Desert2,354,460 km²
  3. Arabian Desert2,330,000 km²
  4. Libyan Desert1,100,000 km²
  5. Kalahari Desert930,000 km²
  6. Rub' al Khali680,000 km²
  7. Kazakh semi-desert678,871 km²
  8. Central Asian northern desert663,900 km²