It is the largest and most famous desert on Earth. Only Antarctica is bigger, but we do not think of an ice-covered continent as a desert in the typical sense. Most people associate a desert with the scorching sun, lack of rain, and sand, lots of sand. Only sand all around. In terms of size, Sahara covers the territory that equals half of Russia or the entire Brazil. Do you know that rich deposits of gas and oil are discovered there? The Sahara Desert has sand dunes as high as 160-180 meters.