Damaraland

African savannah with shrubs and acacias, sandy dry riverbeds, massive granite mountain tops and table mountains are characteristic of the wildly romantic scenery of Damaraland. Springbok and oryx antelope graze in the savannah; the famous desert-adapted elephants move through the dry riverbeds.

Twyfelfontein Rock Engravings

This National Heritage site confers yet another distinction to Namibia: that of one of the foremost centers of artwork in the world. It counts as the largest open-air art gallery in Southern Africa, its name reflecting a farmer’s incredulity that the unreliable spring (Afrikaans: Twyfelfontein) could have supported the Stone Age hunter and its prey for thousands of years. The reddish sandstone boulders seem to glow in the fierce heat, yet ancient man sheltered from enemy and spied on game from these surreal rock formations. Here he assiduously carved away at the intractable rock surfaces to imprint his indelible creations. Today, you can browse amongst these selfsame boulders and slabs of sandstone and marvel at the grandest spectacle of rock engravings in Africa.

Organ Pipes

The name is an apt description of these five- to seven- sided perpendicular dolerite columns, some of which reach 5 meters in length. They are found standing exposed in a 100-meter long gorge that forms part of a deeply eroded dry riverbed. It is advisable to visit this geological phenomenon in the early morning or late afternoon, as the heat during midday becomes unbearable, especially during summer time.

Petrified Forest

Namibia’s petrified forest west of Khorixas is indeed a rare phenomenon. As if through the intervention of some great time machine, the fossilized remains of these tree trunks provide an intriguing glimpse of flora that existed some 260 million years ago. The optical illusion is uncanny – right down to such details as the colour and texture of the bark and growth rings. As startling as the initial sight may be to road-weary eyes - the surprise reaches its climax when the visitor stoops to touch a section of log… for what to all intents and purposes is a piece of wood, turns out in reality to be cold stone!