Final answer:
The desert located about 500 miles east of the Canary Islands is the Sahara Desert, the world's largest hot desert.
Step-by-step explanation:
The desert that is about 500 miles east of the Canary Islands is the Sahara Desert. When looking at a map, you will find that the Sahara Desert stretches across North Africa and is the world's largest hot desert.
Its vastness covers several countries and is well-known for its sand dunes, rocky plateaus, and dry valleys. The Canary Islands are located off the northwest coast of Africa, therefore, a desert to the east would naturally be the Sahara.
The proximity of a desert region to the Canary Islands hints towards the Sahara, as other deserts like the Sonoran Desert, found in the United States, and the Chihuahuan Desert, which is in parts of Mexico and the United States, are situated much further away across the Atlantic.