The Namib Desert is a narrow belt of desert between 80km and 160km wide and 2 000 km long.  It spreads from the mouth of the Olifants River in the South and the Angolan border at the North.  The Namib is the oldest desert in the world.  It’s a harsh, seemingly lifeless landscape.  The surface of the Namib is covered in sand dunes that can reach a height of up to 350m.  The sand dunes exist mainly of quartz ranging in 0.5mm to 0.07mm in diameter.

In the language of the local Nama people “Namib” means “huge, deserted place”.
           
Namib Naukluft National Park
Within the boundaries of the magnificent Namib Desert, lies the Namib Naukluf Park.
Namib Naukluft Park is the largest nature conservation area in Africa (almost 50 000 square km) covering much of the central Namib Desert and the Naukluft Mountains. 

The Namib Naukluft Park extends inland from the coast for 24 000square km.  The region is divided by the dry Kuiseb River.  South of the Kuiseb are the sanddunes.   North of the river lies a flatness of rock and stone that is occasionally relieved by river-bed and rocky hills.

Visitors have access to four sections of the park: the dunes of Sossusvlei in the so-called Dune Namib, the Naukluft Mountains, the gravel plains of the Namib between the seasonal Swakop and Kuiseb Rivers, as well as the dune area on the Atlantic coast around the lagoon at Sandwich Harbour. Furthermore, some parts of the park – the dune belt of the Koichab River north of Aus for example – can be accessed through tour operators who hold a concession.