Geography of Namibia

Namibia is a big and interesting country in southern Africa. It is the world’s thirty-fourth largest country. Namibia is very empty, with only a few people living in each square kilometer. This makes it the second least crowded country in the world after Mongolia.

The country gets its name from the Namib desert, which runs along its coast next to the Atlantic Ocean. This desert is one of the oldest in the world and has many unique plants and animals. Namibia is also famous for its wild animals, with places like Etosha National Park being home to lions, elephants, and many other species. The wide-open spaces and beautiful landscapes make Namibia a fascinating place to learn about.

Geographical areas

The Namibian landscape has five main areas, each with its own plants and conditions: the Central Plateau, the Namib Desert, the Great Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert.

The Central Plateau runs from north to south. It is bordered by the Skeleton Coast to the northwest, the Namib Desert to the southwest, the Orange River to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east. The highest point in Namibia, Königstein, is here. The nation's capital, Windhoek, is also here, along with most of the farmland.

The Namib Desert is a wide, dry area along the coast. It includes the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north, as well as the Namib Sand Sea along the central coast. The Namib has "Fairy circles", which are round patches of land with no plants.

The Great Escarpment rises quickly to over 2,000 metres (6,562 ft). The plants along the escarpment look different in various places.

The Bushveld is in northeastern Namibia near the border with Angola and in the Caprivi Strip. This area gets more rain than the rest of the country. Next to the Bushveld is the Etosha Pan. Most of the year it is dry, but in the rainy season, it becomes a shallow lake.

The Kalahari Desert is one of Namibia's most famous areas. It is shared with South Africa and Botswana. The Kalahari has many different environments, from very dry sand to areas that don’t seem like a desert. One part, called the Succulent Karoo, has many different plants.

Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world. Its sand dunes, made by strong winds, are the highest in the world. The Namib Desert and the Namib-Naukluft National Park are here. This area is rich in diamonds, making Namibia a major producer of diamonds. It is split into the northern Skeleton Coast and the southern Diamond Coast.

[Fish River Canyon](/wiki/Fish_River_Canyon).

[Namib Desert](/wiki/Namib_Desert).

Namib Escarpment.

The [Kalahari Desert](/wiki/Kalahari_Desert).

[Windhoek](/wiki/Windhoek) skyline.

Natural-colour satellite image of the Namibian coast.

Weather and climate

Namibia has sunshine more than 300 days a year. It is near the bottom half of the world, where the Tropic of Capricorn runs through the middle. Winters from June to August are usually dry. The two rainy seasons are in summer — a smaller one from September to November and a bigger one from February to April. The air stays dry, and rainfall changes a lot, from almost nothing on the coastal desert to over 600 millimetres or 24 inches in the Caprivi Strip. Sometimes, there aren't enough rains for a whole year, which leads to droughts. Very little snow falls here because of the dry winters, but when it does, people talk about it. The most recent snow was seen at Spreetshoogte Pass in the Namib-Naukluft Park in June 2011.

Near the coast, the weather is influenced by a cold ocean current called the Benguela Current. This brings very little rain — just 50 millimetres or 2 inches each year — along with thick fog and cooler temperatures than elsewhere in the country. Sometimes, a warm, dry wind called Berg wind or Oosweer in Afrikaans blows from the desert inland toward the coast. When this happens, sand can be carried out to sea.

The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas can have very different temperatures between day and night.

Examples

Water sources

Main article: Water supply and sanitation in Namibia

Namibia is one of the driest places in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of its water comes from deep underground. Rain falls about 350 mm (14 in) each year, more in the northeast Caprivi Strip and less near the coast. Only a few rivers flow all year, mostly along borders with South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and Botswana. Inside Namibia, rivers only fill up after big rains in summer. People store this water in large dams. Where there are no rivers or dams, folks use groundwater. Even far-off towns and farms get water from underground sources across most of the country. The longest river here is the Fish River, stretching 650 km (400 mi).

Over the past hundred years, people have dug many deep wells called boreholes. In 2012, a big underground water source called "Ohangwena II" was found on the border with Angola. Experts think it could give water to many people in the north for a long time. Namibia is believed to hold a lot of water underground.

Every year, heavy rains from Angola can cause floods in northern Namibia, filling up flood plains called Oshanas.

Urbanization

Main articles: List of cities and towns in Namibia and Namibia § Urban settlements

Windhoek, the capital city, is in the middle of Namibia. It has important places like government offices, Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, and the main train station. Other important towns include:

• Arandis, known for mining
• Walvis Bay, a busy port with an airport and train station
• Oshakati, the main business town in the north with a train stop
• Otjiwarongo, a business town with train connections
• Lüderitz, a port town with a train stop
• Gobabis, a town for farming
• Keetmanshoop, a train stop
• Tsumeb, famous for mining
• Swakopmund, a popular tourist town with German history
• Rundu
• Katima Mulilo
• Okahandja

Statistics

Namibia is a country in Southern Africa, next to the South Atlantic Ocean between Angola and South Africa. It is the world's thirty-fourth largest country, with an area of 824,292 km².

The land has high plateaus, the Namib Desert along the coast, and the Kalahari Desert in the east. The lowest point is at sea level on the Atlantic Ocean. The highest point is Königstein, which is 2,573 meters tall. Namibia has natural resources such as diamonds, copper, and fish. The country sometimes faces challenges like drought and the loss of wildlife.

Extreme points

This section lists the farthest points of Namibia, showing where the country is most north, south, east, and west.

• Northernmost point – a spot on the border with Angola in the Kunene River near the Epupa Falls, Kunene Region
• Easternmost point – the tripoint with Botswana and Zambia, Zambezi Region
• Southernmost point – a spot in Pella Drift on the Orange River border with South Africa, ǁKaras Region
• Westernmost point – a part of the coast west of the Okotuso well, Kunene Region