Truly, Earth is a planet of contrasts. More than 70% of its surface is covered with water. Because of this, in some cases it can be safely called the "planet-ocean". And she is unique. Thousands of planets have already been discovered outside the solar system, but none of them has as much water as our blue planet.
For all that, there are areas from which you can form a whole list called "the driest places on earth". Rains in these areas can be expected for a very long time, but never wait. Almost all of them are in deserts. They are united by extremely low average annual rainfall. Even more surprising: people live there, next to the sands!
Sahara Desert
Two Egyptian contenders for the title of "the driest place on earth" - Luxor and Aswan - cities located on the Nile. The architectural complexes of the ancient Egyptian civilization in Luxor stagger the imagination, and in the vicinity of Aswan with its famous dam in ancient times stone was mined for the pyramids in Giza. Strong (150-160 km/h) andhot winds that bring sand with them, and if it suddenly rains, then its drops will evaporate before reaching the ground! labor. In El Kufr, adjacent to the 300-meter layer of sands of the Sahara, springs gush out of the ground. Here you can enjoy local peaches, dates and apricots. The complete opposite is Wadi Halfa in Sudan, located near the Egyptian border. This city is completely devoid of green spaces. Yes, they are unthinkable in very dry and hot air.
Namib Desert
Pelican Point - the driest place on earth? Unlikely. But in Namibia, most of the territory is occupied by deserts and semi-deserts. But this is not just a town, but a marina on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. It seems that there is more than enough water here, and there is not much more precipitation than in Wadi Halfa. But the beautiful big Atlantic waves have made these places a real paradise for surfers.
Atacama Desert
Welcome to Latin America! In Chile, the city of Iquique is located, which in the competition for the title of "the driest place on earth" is located in the ranking just between Wadi Halfa and Pelican Point. And this is a full-fledged Pacific port! On the beaches of Iquique, Chileans are escaping dry weather. They live here not only for the sake of the port, but also for the s altpeter mined in the surrounding desert.
Another Chilean port city - Arica - is five times drierhis countryman. It would seem that the Pacific Ocean, sufficient humidity, a lot of clouds, but water drops reach the ground very rarely. What's more, there are areas in the adjacent desert where it last rained centuries ago!
Another city bordering the Atacama is located in Peru. This is Ika. The fact that the climate here was not always deadly dry was convinced by archaeologists when, during excavations, a large fossilized … penguin appeared to their eyes! Before the discovery of the New World, local residents mummified their dead tribesmen. Asthma sufferers now come here: the dry air of Ica, they say, greatly relieves their suffering.
And yet none of the above dwellings of people is called "the driest place on earth".
Antarctica
The only, perhaps, arid region on the planet, not connected with the desert, is called very simply: McMurdo Dry Valleys. In the column of the average precipitation rate opposite this name is a more than eloquent figure - 0. The local places set another amazing record: the wind speed in the Dry Valleys reaches 320 km / h. This is the reason for dryness: all possible moisture is blown out from here. And this process continues, according to scientists, for at least 8 million years!The driest place in the world is devoid of fauna: not a single animal can survive here. Of all the gigantic diversity of the Earth's biosphere, only frail plants and bacteria were found here. Another eloquent evidence: in the Dry Valleys, natural conditions are strikingly close tomartian. It is no coincidence that in the mid-1970s, NASA tested the landing blocks of the Viking Mars probes in the harsh conditions of the Dry Valleys, which subsequently successfully worked on Mars.
