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| National Parks of Namibia | The main safari attractions in Namibia are the world's oldest desert - the Namib, impressive Fish River Canyon, stunning Big Five game parks, 1 500-year-old Welwitschia Mirabilis plant, world-famous Etosha National Park, endless, massive sand dunes, mysterious Sperrgebiet - the "forbidden" diamond region, bizarre Bavarian village of Lüderitz, haunting ghost town of Kolmanskop.
Etosha National Park is Namibia's prime wildlife reserve, as large as many of the European countries, a semi-arid savannah pastures and thorn scrub spaces surrounding a calcrete dried-out pond. This is Etosha Pan, and every rainy season is transformed for a brief period to turn into a sea of mirages during its notorious dry winter months.
The Namib Desert is small if to compare with Africa's giant Sahara, but it is believed to be the world's oldest arid region and belongs to the earth's land surfaces that are classified as "hyper-arid". This amazing region includes the Skeleton Coast and Kaokoveld in the north, rock and gravel plains of the central Namib and the mighty dune seas of the south.
The Namib-Naukluft Park in the central Namib is one of the world's largest national parks and contains 4 main conservation areas including the various habitats of the gravel plains of the Namib Desert Park, the immense dune fields of Sossusvlei, the solitary wetland of Sandwich Harbor and the higher plateau of the Naukluft Park.
The Skeleton Coast has opportunely acquired its ominous reputation as a graveyard for careless sailors over the centuries. This distant and sensitive wilderness in the north is still largely off-limits today.
The Kaokoveld is one of Namibia's most impassable regions and holds some of Africa's most popular examples of rock art in the granitic landmarks of Damaraland. The northern wilderness area is a rough mountainous desert where the endangered Kaokoveld elephants amongst other uniquely adapted species inhabit.
The Caprivi Strip - the north-eastern panhandle between Botswana, Angola and Zambia. It is one of the more odd legacies of 19th Century colonial agreements and now a small conservation area which is trying to recover from the devastation of poachers and the Namibian war of the 70's and 80's.
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