The Driest Place on Earth

[Pearty]

What is the direst place on earth? I have had conflicting answers to this question.  The two answers that come up are Antartica and the Atacama desert. 

Any help would be gratefully received.

[brachiopod]

The Guinness Book of Records lists the Atacama, saying;

"For the period between 1964 and 2001, the average annual rainfall at the meteorological station in Quillagua, in the Atacama Desert, Chile, was just 0.5mm. This discovery was made during the making of the documentary series Going to Extremes, by Keo Films in 2001."

[stoo_pid]

Antarctica is technically the world's largest desert but not the driest.  The average annual rainfall in Antarctica(depending on where & when you measure it) is between 50mm & 200mm

[Aa01]

the Sahara