Sossusvlei/Sesriem

The Sossusvlei, the highlight of any visit to the Namib Desert, is a huge clay pan, enclosed by giant sand dunes. Some of the spectacular hills of sand are, at a height of 300 metres, the highest in the world. Only after a heavy rainfall, which is a rare event in this area, does the vlei fill with water. As the clay layers hardly allow any water infiltration, a turquoise lake will remain for quite some time.

Highlights of the area include:

Dune 45 must be one of the most famous dunes in the world appearing on countless photographs and posters all over the world, because of its unusually simple and fascinating shape, and its proximity to the road, that make it convenient for visitors to stop by and take pictures. Dune 45 is so called because it lies 45km past Sesriem on the road to Sossusvlei.

Deadvlei is a clay pan punctuated by blackened, dead acacia 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 uncountable pictures and that has been used as a setting for films and videos.

The Sesriem Canyon, which is the second most important tourist attraction in the area after Sossusvlei. It is a natural canyon carved by the Tsauchab rivier in the local sedimentary rock, about a kilometer (0.6 mile) long and up to 30-meter (100-foot) deep. in sedimentary rock. The name Sesriem is Afrikaans and means "six belts", given by settlers returning from the Dorsland Trek who had to attach together six belts (made of oryx hides), in order to reach buckets down into the canyon to scoop up water.