Sossusvlei (sometimes written Sossus Vlei) is a

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

and clay pan surrounded by high red dunes, located in the southern part of the

Namib Desert 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 Ri ...

, in the

Namib-Naukluft National Park The Namib-Naukluft National Park is a national park in western Namibia, situated between the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the edge of the Great Escarpment. It encompasses part of the Namib Desert (considered the world's oldest desert), the ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. The name "Sossusvlei" is often used in an extended meaning to refer to the surrounding area (including other neighbouring ''vlei''s such as Deadvlei and other high dunes). These landmarks are some of the major

visitor attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beaut ...

s of Namibia. The name "Sossusvlei" is of mixed origin and roughly means "dead-end marsh".

Vlei A vlei (; ) is a shallow minor lake, mostly of a seasonal or intermittent lake, intermittent nature. It even might refer to seasonal ponds or marshy patches where frogs and similar marsh dwellers breed. Commonly, vleis vary in their extent, or e ...

is the

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

word for "marsh", while "sossus" is Nama for "no return" or "dead end". Sossusvlei owes this name to the fact that it is an

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

(i.e., a drainage basin without outflows) for the ephemeral

Tsauchab The Tsauchab is an Ephemerality, ephemeral river in the Hardap Region of central Namibia. Its source is in the southern Naukluft Mountains, from where it flows westwards through the Namib-Naukluft National Park into Sossusvlei, an endorheic ba ...

River.

Environment

The Sossusvlei area forms part of a wider region of the southern Namib Desert with homogeneous features (about 32.000 km²) extending between the Koichab and Kuiseb rivers. This area is characterized by high

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s in different shades of orange - the colour an indication of a high concentration of

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

, after being exposed to the process of

oxidation Redox ( , , reduction–oxidation or oxidation–reduction) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of the reactants change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is ...

over many years. The older the dunes, the more intense the reddish colour. These dunes are among the highest in the world; many of them higher than 200 metres, the highest being the one nicknamed Big Daddy, about 325 metres high. The highest dune in the Namib Desert however, Dune 7, is about 388 metres high. Insektenspuren Sossusvlei

The highest and more stable dunes are partially covered with relatively rich vegetation, which is mainly watered by a number of underground and ephemeral rivers that seasonally flood the pans, creating marshes that are locally known as ''vleis.'' When dried up, these pans look almost white in color, due to the high concentration of

. Another important source of water for Sossusvlei is the moisture from the daily morning fogs that enter the desert from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. Fauna in the Sossusvlei area is surprisingly rich in variety. It mostly comprises small animals that can survive with little water, including a number of

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s, small

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s, and small

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s (such as

rodents Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

jackal Jackals are Canidae, canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe Canina (subtribe), canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-b ...

s). Bigger animals include

antelope The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe. Antelopes do ...

s (mainly oryxes and

springbok The springbok or springbuck (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first Species description, described by the Germa ...

s) and

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

es. On the rare occasion that the pans flood, several migrant

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

species might be found in the water. Much of the Sossusvlei and Namib fauna is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

and highly adapted to the specific conditions of the Namib, for instance, the Namib Desert Beetle which has developed a technique for collecting water from the early morning fog with the help of the specially adapted bumps on its back.

Climate

Sossusvlei has a hot desert climate. The annual mean average temperature is 24 °C. In winter, the nighttime lows are around 10 °C, while in summer temperatures often reach up to 40 °C. Being situated in the Namib desert, there is a large variation between day and night temperatures. Rain is a rare phenomenon.

Landmarks

Sesriem

Access to the Sossusvlei area of the Namib-Naukluft National Park is from the Sesriem gate, which is located in the surroundings of the eponymous

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

. From Sesriem, a 60 km tarmac road leads to Sossusvlei proper.

Elim Dune

The Elim Dune is a high and relatively isolated dune located 5 km past the Sesriem gate, on a branch of the main road connecting Sesriem to Sossusvlei. The dune takes its name from a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

that used to be in the area before the National Park was established.

Dune 45

Dune 45 is so called because it lies 45 km past Sesriem on the road to Sossusvlei. It is 80 meters high and it is composed of 5-million-year-old sands.

Sossusvlei

Sossusvlei is about 66 km past the Sesriem gate. The last 6 km can only be traversed with 4WD vehicles as the metalled road ends and sand begins (the place where the metalled road ends is known as "2x4 parking" as any non-4WD vehicle must stop there). Sossusvlei is a clay pan, of roughly elliptical shape, covered in a crust of salt-rich sand. While the pan has been shaped over time by the Tsauchab river, the actual flooding of the pan is a relatively rare event, and sometimes several years pass between one flood and the next one. The river is dry most of the year, and even when it is not, it carries relatively little water to the vlei. The vlei is surrounded by high orange-reddish dunes, partially covered by a vegetation comprising grass, bushes, and some trees (mostly of species ''

Vachellia erioloba ''Vachellia erioloba'', the camel thorn, also known as the giraffe thorn, mokala tree, or Kameeldoring in Afrikaans, still more commonly known as ''Acacia erioloba'', is a tree of southern Africa in the family Fabaceae. Its preferred habitat is ...

'').

Big Daddy

Big Daddy is the highest dune in the Sossusvlei area, at about 325 meters. Big Daddy is located past Sossusvlei proper, near Deadvlei. It faces another very high dune known as "Big Mama". Big Daddy is distinct from Dune 7, near

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...

Deadvlei

Deadvlei is another clay pan, about 2 km from Sossusvlei. A notable feature of Deadvlei is that it used to be an

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentcamelthorn trees; afterwards, the river that watered the oasis changed its course. The pan is thus punctuated by blackened, dead camelthorn trees, in vivid contrast to the shiny white of the salty floor of the pan and the intense orange of the dunes. This creates a particularly fascinating and surrealistic landscape, that appears in innumerable pictures and has been used as a setting for films and videos.

Hiddenvlei

Hiddenvlei (or Hidden Vlei) is another ''

vlei A vlei (; ) is a shallow minor lake, mostly of a seasonal or intermittent lake, intermittent nature. It even might refer to seasonal ponds or marshy patches where frogs and similar marsh dwellers breed. Commonly, vleis vary in their extent, or e ...

'' in the Sossusvlei area. It is 4 km from the 2×4 parking, and it is the least visited.

Lithified dunes

Lithified dunes are sand dunes that have solidified to rock and are found in several places in the Sossusvlei area.

Tourism

Since Sossusvlei is possibly the foremost attraction of Namibia, much has been done by the Namibian authorities to support and facilitate tourism in the area. The asphalt road was built in the early 2000s (decade) to connect Sesriem and Sossusvlei's 2x4 parking is one of the very few non-urban metalled roads in Namibia. Numerous places of accommodation are found along the border of the National Park, between Sesriem and the nearest settlement, Solitaire. Recently, accommodation has been built inside the park. It is also possible to take scenic flights over the dunes, either with small planes (mainly from

Swakopmund Swakopmund ("Mouth of the Swakop River, Swakop") is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 road (Namibia), B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo Region, Erongo administrative district. It ...

and

) or in

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...

s (departing from Sesriem in the morning).

In popular culture

As a consequence of its fascinating and surrealistic landscapes, Sossusvlei is one of the most photographed places in Subsaharan Africa. The area has been the setting of a number of commercials, music videos, and movies, especially of the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

genre; one of the most well-known examples is the

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a Film genre, genre combining the thriller (genre), thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting ...

'' The Cell'' (2000), where the Sossusvlei landscape is used to represent an oneiric

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

. The nonverbal documentary '' Samsara'' depends on a number of shots of the desert for subtle spiritual commentary. Other movies with scenes shot in Sossusvlei include '' The Fall'' and '' Steel Dawn''.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Salt pans of Namibia Dunes of Namibia Namib-Naukluft National Park