Sossusvlei
Nature
Red sand dunes as high as skyscrapers, in the oldest desert in the world.
In the Namib Desert of Namibia stand some of the highest sand dunes on Earth. The tallest here rises about 325 metres: about as high as the Eiffel Tower. The sand is red because the iron in it has rusted.
Between the dunes lies a white pan of dried clay with black, dead trees. They died about nine hundred years ago, when the dunes cut off the water. It is so dry that they have never rotted.
- the highest dune
- 325 m
- years the trees have been dead
- 900
- World Heritage since
- 2013
- 1
The Namib is thought to be the oldest desert in the world: it has been dry for tens of millions of years.
- 2
Fog rolls in from the ocean in the morning. A beetle here stands on its head and lets the fog run down its back into its mouth.
- 3
The older a dune is, the redder: the iron has had longer to rust.
Question 1 of 2
Read about Namibia