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The Namib ( ; ) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba River in Angola, through Namibia and to the Olifants River in Western Cape, South Africa. (2025). 9780195337709, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195337709 The Namib's northernmost portion, which extends from the Angola-Namibia border, is known as Moçâmedes Desert, while its southern portion approaches the neighboring Kalahari Desert. From the Atlantic coast eastward, the Namib gradually ascends in elevation, reaching up to inland to the foot of the Great Escarpment. Annual precipitation ranges from in the aridest regions to at the escarpment, making the Namib the only true desert in southern Africa. Having endured Desert climate or semi-arid conditions for roughly 55–80 million years, the Namib may be the oldest desert in the world and contains some of the world's driest regions, with only western South America's Atacama Desert to challenge it for age and aridity benchmarks. Most of Namibia's share of the Namib Desert is protected under the environmental protection included in the constitution of the country.
The desert geology consists of near the coast, while gravel plains and scattered mountain outcrops occur further inland. The sand dunes, some of which are high and span long, are the second-largest in the world after the Badain Jaran Desert dunes in China. Temperatures along the coast are stable and generally range between annually, while temperatures further inland are variable—summer daytime temperatures can exceed while nights can be freezing. that originate offshore from the collision of the cold Benguela Current and warm air from the Hadley cell create a fog belt that frequently envelops parts of the desert. Coastal regions can experience more than 180 days of thick fog a year. While this has proved a major hazard to ships—more than a thousand wrecks litter the Skeleton Coast—it is a vital source of moisture for desert life.
The Namib is almost completely uninhabited by humans except for several small settlements and indigenous pastoral groups, including the Himba people and Herero people in the north, and the Nama people in the central region. Owing to its antiquity, the Namib may be home to more Endemism than any other desert in the world. Most of the desert wildlife is and other small animals that live on little water, although larger animals inhabit the northern regions. Near the coast, the cold ocean water is rich in fishery resources and supports populations of brown fur seals and shorebirds, which serve as prey for the Skeleton Coast's . Further inland, the Namib-Naukluft National Park supports population of Mountain Zebra, and other large mammals. Further north near the Skeleton Coast, Lion, elephants and Black rhinoceros can be found. Although the outer Namib is largely barren of vegetation, and Succulent plant are found in coastal areas, while grasses, shrubs, and thrive near the escarpment. Several types of trees are also able to survive the extremely arid climate.
Southern Namib (between Lüderitz and the Kuiseb River) comprises a vast dune sea with some of the tallest and most spectacular dunes in the world, ranging in color from pink to vivid orange. In the Sossusvlei area, several dunes exceed in height. The complexity and regularity of dune patterns in its dune sea have attracted the attention of for decades, but it remains poorly understood.
The source of the unconsolidated sand (the most recent sand sea) is dominantly from the Orange River, which drains into the Atlantic south of the Namib Sand Sea, with minor contributions in the east from the (now ephemeral) rivers that drain into the sand sea. For this reason, the Namib Sand Sea has been referred to as the "wind displaced delta of the Orange River."
Moving north from Sossusvlei, the sand gradually gives way to a rocky desert that extends from Sossusvlei to the Swakop river. This area is traversed by the Tropic of Capricorn and is mostly flat, although some scenic canyons and elevations are found in some areas, for example in the Moon Valley system. While most of the soil is rocky, sand dunes are still occasionally found in this region; for example, sand dunes occupy much of the coastline between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.
The Namib desert is an important location for the mining of tungsten, salt, and Diamond.
Several rivers and streams run through the Namib, although all of the rivers south of the Cunene River and north of the Orange River are ephemeral and rarely or never reach the ocean. These rivers arise in the interior mountains of Namibia and flow after summer rain storms.
One of the most well-known endemic plants of the Namib is the welwitchia plant, a shrub-like plant, it grows two long strap-shaped leaves continuously throughout its lifetime. These leaves may be several meters long, gnarled, and twisted from the desert winds. The taproot of the plant develops into a flat, concave disc in age. Welwitschia is notable for its survival in the extremely arid Namib conditions, made possible by its ability to capture moisture from coastal sea fogs. Areas where Welwitschias are a common sight include the eponymous Welwitschia Plains, which are adjacent to the Husab Mine, one of the largest of its kind in the world.
"Fairy circles", which are circular patches of land barren of plants, varying between in diameter and often encircled by a ring of stimulated growth of grass, are found in the Namib, such as those near the Wolwedans desert camp.
The steppes in the southern half of the desert are mostly made up of ranches run by Europeans, who raise Karakul sheep with local help and send the pelts of the lambs to Europe for use in fur coats. Most of the rest of the desert is set aside for conservation. A vast portion of the desert, called the Sperrgebiet, was access-restricted due to the presence of diamonds, which are mined in the area at the mouth of the Orange River. Although the desert is largely unpopulated and inaccessible, there are year-round settlements at Sesriem, close to the Sossusvlei area, and other small outposts in other locations. Moçâmedes in Angola, and Lüderitz, Walvis Bay, and Swakopmund in Namibia, bordering on the desert, are the main settlements in the area.
The 2015 film was filmed here.
In 2019 the Namibian-German artist Max Siedentopf created an installation in the Namib consisting of a ring of large white blocks atop of which sit six speakers attached to a solar-powered MP3 player configured to continuously play the 1982 song "Africa" by the American band Toto. The exact location of the installation has not been disclosed.
Since 2021, a livestream has operated from the an artificial watering hole on the inland edge of the desert. https://www.youtube.com/@NamibiaCam
Access to the park is either by or dust roads (except for 60 km of asphalt concrete from the Sesriem gate to Sossusvlei) or by light aircraft from Windhoek (the capital of Namibia, about northeast of the centre of the desert), or Swakopmund and Walvis Bay at the north end of the desert.
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