Desert namib

The northern third of the desert - the Kaokoveld region - consists mainly of rocky wastelands and bare rocky valleys with sparse fields of sand dunes and scattered weathered mountains.

The terrain rises slowly east of the ocean to a level of about 900 m at the foot of the continental plateau. In some places above the desert rise rocky mountains with steep slopes, through which in the north several rivers cut deep gorges with steep walls.

The desert is divided into three geographical areas that stretch in strips along the coast: a very narrow coastal strip where the ocean is well felt, the outer Namib, which occupies the rest of the western half of the desert, and the inner Namib in the eastern, most continental part of the desert. There are wide transition areas between these zones.

Important deposits of tungsten and uranium ores and diamonds have been explored in the desert. The surrounding sea is extremely productive and attracts many seals, seabirds and even penguins, which, despite the African heat, nest on desert shores and coastal islands.

The name "Namib" in the language of the Nama people means "a place where there is nothing." The Namib Desert is very dry (it receives only 10-13 mm of rainfall per year) and, with the exception of a few coastal cities, is virtually uninhabited. Namib Pus is the oldest desert in the world: desert or semi-desert conditions have been prevalent for 80 million years, ie it has existed since the time of the dinosaurs. As a result, there are several endemic species of plants and animals that are adapted to life in the local extremely hostile climate and are not found anywhere else in the world.

The Namib Desert is a coastal desert in southwestern Africa, covering an area of ​​about 310,000 km2 and stretching 1,900 km along the Atlantic coast from the city of Namibe in Angola, across Namibia to the mouth of the Ulifants River in the Cape Province of South Africa.