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Deserts of the World: asked and not asked.
UPSC has asked 6 of these 19. 2 came more than once. 13 have not come yet. Lock the repeated ones first, then read the rest.
First, the concept
Most hot deserts lie on the western sides of continents between about 15° and 30° latitude, where dry trade winds blow off the land and cold ocean currents run along the coast.
Cold currents make coastal deserts very dry: Benguela → Namib, Humboldt (Peru) → Atacama, Canary → western Sahara. Other deserts lie in a rain-shadow (Patagonia) or deep inside a continent (Gobi).
UPPCS asks a desert with its country, and which deserts are cold.
🔁 Asked again and again (2)
Tap a year to open that solved question.
✅ Asked once (4)
Africa
- Namib · Namibia coast; one of the oldest deserts; Benguela current 2024
Asia
- Dasht-e-Kavir and Dasht-e-Lut · Iran; Lut has recorded some of the hottest ground
Americas
- Patagonian · Argentina; a rain-shadow desert east of the Andes 2013
Australia and the poles
- Great Sandy, Gibson, Simpson · Australia
❌ Not asked by UPSC yet (13)
Items marked 'asked in UPPCS' have already come in the UP state exam, so examiners do use them.
Africa
- Kalahari · Botswana, Namibia, South Africa; the San (Bushmen) asked in UPPCS
- Libyan and Nubian · Eastern parts of the Sahara; Egypt, Libya, Sudan
Asia
- Arabian (Rub' al Khali) · Saudi Arabia; the 'Empty Quarter', largest sand sea asked in UPPCS
- Gobi · China–Mongolia; a cold desert asked in UPPCS
- Taklamakan · Xinjiang, China; cold, between Tian Shan and Kunlun asked in UPPCS
- Karakum and Kyzylkum · Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan–Kazakhstan asked in UPPCS
- Syrian and Negev · Syria–Jordan–Iraq; Israel
Americas
- Atacama · Chile; the driest place on Earth; Humboldt current asked in UPPCS
- Mojave · USA; Death Valley lies in it asked in UPPCS
- Sonoran and Chihuahuan · USA–Mexico asked in UPPCS
- Great Basin · USA; a cold desert asked in UPPCS
Australia and the poles
- Great Victoria · Australia's largest desert asked in UPPCS
- Antarctic · The largest desert of all: very little snowfall
⚠️ Gobi and Taklamakan are cold deserts. The Atacama, not the Sahara, is the driest. Kalahari is in southern Africa, not in Asia.
'Asked' is checked against the solved UPSC questions on this site. 'Not asked yet' does not mean it will surely come.