Question

What is the name of the desert that stretches across most of North Africa?
A. Kalahari desert
B. Sahara desert
C. Thar desert
D. Atacama desert

Answer 1

Hint: The desert that stretches across most of North Africa is also considered to be the largest hot desert in the world. It covers nearly a third of the African continent.

Complete answer: The desert is flanked in the west by the Atlantic Ocean, by the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea in the north, by the Red Sea in the east and by the Sahel in the south which is a semiarid region that shapes a momentary zone between the Sahara toward the north and the belt of humid savannas toward the south.

Now let us examine the answer
Option A - Kalahari desert expands over an area of about 900,000 square kilometres covering parts of Namibia and much of Botswana. It is a semi-arid sandy savannah situated in Southern Africa. Option B - This huge desert traverses eleven countries: Tunisia, Sudan, Western Sahara, Niger, Morocco, Mauritiana, Mali, Libya, Egypt, Chad and Algeria with a total area of 9,200,000 square kilometres.
Option C - The Thar desert is also known as the Great Indian Desert located in India expands over an area of 200,000 square kilometres. It ranks 17 in terms of the world’s largest desert and famous for the crescent-shaped dunes or Barchans.
Option D - The Atacama Desert is a desert plateau situated in South America expanding over an area of 1600 kilometres on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar desert in the world and also the only desert to get less precipitation than the polar deserts.

Thus, the correct answer is option (B).

Note: In spite of the harsh, dry conditions of the desert, a few plants and creatures call the area home. As per the World Wildlife Fund, there are roughly 500 types of plants, 100 reptilian species, 90 avian species and 70 known mammalian species that live in the desert, in addition, several species of scorpions, spiders and other little arthropods.