The Sahara is a desert on the African continent. With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic.

Siberia is an extensive geographical region spanning much of Eurasia and Northern Asia. Siberia stretches southwards from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and to the national borders of Mongolia and China. With an area of 13.1 million square kilometres (5,100,000 sq mi), Siberia accounts for 77% of Russia's land area, but it is home to only 23% of the country's population (approximately 33 million people). If it were a country by itself, it would still be the largest country by area, but in population it would be the world's 35th-largest and Asia's 14th-largest.