Antofagasta Region average rainfall in the Antofagasta is just per year. From the coast, east to the Chilean Coast Range, is the south-central part of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. Further to the east, it is part of the less arid Central Andean dry puna ecoregion. The surroundings of abandoned Yungay town have been named the driest place in the world. Most of the population lives on the coast in Antofagasta and Mejillones, or in Calama, Chile in the interior, the hub of the mining industry and the home of a large part of its work force. In
Sahara Desert (ecoregion) that crosses the ecoregion is the Nile River, which originates in central Africa and empties northwards into the Mediterranean Sea. Some areas encompass vast underground aquifers resulting in oases, while other regions severely lack water reserves. The Sahara Desert features a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification "BWh"). The Sahara Desert is one of the driest and hottest regions of the world, with a mean temperature sometimes over and the average high temperatures in summer are over for months at a time, and can even soar to . In desert rocky mountains such as the Tibesti in Libya or the