The
Libyan Desert forms the northern and eastern part of the
Sahara Desert and covers an area of approximately . The desert extends approximately 1,100 km from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle. The Libyan Desert covers eastern
Libya, western
Egypt, and northwestern
Sudan. Like most of the Sahara Desert, this desert is primarily
sand and
hamada or stony plain. The Libyan Desert is one of the harshest parts of the bigger Sahara Desert. This is one of the sunniest and driest places on Earth; many decades may easily pass without seeing any rainfall at all and the sky is always cloudless, clear, and luminous. Extreme heat and extreme dryness both contribute to one of the highest levels of aridity found in the planet.