Trifter

The Namib Desert is a wild, haunting, unique and beautiful place that stretches some 1,200 miles along the Atlantic Ocean in Namibia and Southwest Angola and is home to the largest sand dunes in the world.

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While the Namib is a very long desert it is not very wide as it averages just 70 miles in width. At 55 million years in age, the Namib is considered the 2nd oldest desert in the world after Chile’s Atacama Desert. Namib means open spaces and this desert has plenty of that.

A combination of the cold Benguela current combined with the dry air of the trade winds prevalent in the area limits the Namib Desert to just 0.4 inches of rainfall per year. Which makes the desert a barren, haunting place of great beauty full of things to see.

(Satellite image of the Namib Desert)

Sand Dunes

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The tallest sand dunes in the world are located in the Namib Desert with some rising over 1,000 feet. The dunes are created from the powerful trade winds blowing in off the coast.

(Namib Desert dunes seen from space and photographed by astronaut)

The orange color of the dunes is from the iron in the sand which becomes oxidized over time. The brighter the color the older the sand dune is.

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Sossusvlei

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The Sossusvlei is a clay pan that does not absorb water in the Namib Desert thus creating a pool. It is fed by the Tsauchab River when rare rainfall occurs.

Source (Dry Tsauchab River bed)

Dead Vlei

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Another clay pan close to the Sossusvlei. In the past the Dead Vlei also received water from the Tsauchab River which allowed camel thorn trees to grow in the area but today no water reaches the Dead Vlei and all that is left of the trees is their skeletons.

Skeleton Coast

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While the cold Benguela current helps to keep rainfall from the Namib Desert it also creates dense ocean fogs along the area of the coast of the desert which is called the Skeleton Coast. The Skeleton Coast is named for the bleached whale and seal bones that covered the area during whaling days and for the skeletal shipwrecks along the coast caused by the heavy fog, offshore rocks and strong ocean currents and surf.

Image via Wikipedia

Over 1,000 vessels have wrecked along the Skeleton Coast.

Source (Wreck of the Eduard Bohlen, 1909)

Bogenfels

Image via Wikipedia

In the Southwestern part of the desert along the coast is a natural rock formation known as Bogenfels or arch rock. Some 180 feet high, the rock formation is hard to reach and is actually located in a diamond mine area.

The Long Wall or The Lange Wand

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Probably a very inhospitable place but it sure looks cool from a distance and the picture says it all.

 
Welwitschia Mirabilis

Image via Wikipedia

Welwitschia mirabilis is one of the oldest and most unique plant species on planet Earth and exists only in the Namib Desert. Welwitschia mirabilis can live to be 2,000 years old and survives by growing two long leaves from its trunk. The leaves spread out and absorb the moisture from the daily fog created by the cold Benguela current and carried into the desert from the strong trade winds.

You would not want to live in the Namib Desert but it is a great place to visit.

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