Namibia

Namibia is a country in Africa.

It is next to the Atlantic Ocean. It has big sand dunes and dry, rocky land. The capital city is called Windhoek.

Namibia is on the southwestern coast of Africa, beside the Atlantic Ocean. It is roughly a rectangle, with a long, narrow strip of land in the northeast called the Caprivi Strip.

Namibia has three main kinds of land. Along the coast is the Namib desert, with huge sand dunes. In the middle is a high plateau of grass, bushes and hills, where most farming happens. In the east, the land slopes down into the Kalahari. About 3.1 million people lived in Namibia in 2025, and the capital is Windhoek.

Namibia lies on the southwestern coast of Africa, bordered by Angola, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and the Atlantic. It is roughly rectangular, about 965 km by 480 to 725 km, with the long Caprivi Strip to the east, which Britannica traces to a German misconception that reaching the Zambezi meant reaching the Indian Ocean. It covers about 825,600 km².

Britannica describes a spectacular landscape of desert, mountains, canyons and savanna. The only permanent rivers are on the borders: the Kunene, Okavango, Kwando (Mashi) and Zambezi in the north and the Orange in the south. The World Bank put the population at 3,092,816 in 2025; about 43 percent lived in urban areas in 2023.

Windhoek is the capital city. It is on a high plateau.

Swakopmund is a town by the sea. At Twyfelfontein, people carved animals on rocks long ago.

Windhoek, the capital, sits on the Central Plateau in the middle of the country. Swakopmund and Walvis Bay are towns on the coast, where the Swakop and Kuiseb rivers reach the sea in rare flood years.

At Twyfelfontein in the northwest, rocks are covered with engravings of rhinos, elephants, ostriches and giraffes, plus human and animal footprints, made by San hunter-gatherers over at least 2,000 years. It is a World Heritage Site, and so is the Namib Sand Sea, whose dunes UNESCO calls outstanding for their age, size and height. Etosha National Park, around the Etosha Pan, is a major place to see wildlife.

Windhoek is the capital, on the Central Plateau; Greater Windhoek holds more than a tenth of the population. Swakopmund and Walvis Bay sit at the mouths of the Swakop and Kuiseb, which reach the sea only in rare flood years. Diamonds and uranium are mined at Oranjemund and Arandis in the Namib.

UNESCO lists two sites. Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes (2007) has one of the largest concentrations of rock engravings in Africa, mostly of rhinoceros, elephant, ostrich and giraffe, with human and animal footprints and six rock shelters painted with red-ochre figures; Late Stone Age finds and the engravings record hunter-gatherer practices over at least 2,000 years. The Namib Sand Sea (2013), over three million hectares, is described as the only coastal desert with extensive dune fields influenced by fog. Parks include Etosha, Skeleton Coast, Namib-Naukluft and Sperrgebiet.

The Namib desert has giant sand dunes.

It almost never rains there. Fog rolls in from the cold sea. Plants and animals drink the tiny drops of fog.

The Namib desert runs along the whole coast, 80 to 130 kilometers wide. A cold ocean current, the Benguela Current, cools the coast, and less than 50 millimeters of rain falls in a year. Instead, fog from the sea is the main source of water for the plants and animals of the dunes.

Inland, the Central Plateau rises 975 to 1,980 meters, cut by the giant Fish River Canyon and dotted with salt pans like the Etosha Pan. Namibia's highest mountain, the Brandberg, is 2,573 meters tall. Rain is more plentiful in the north, but droughts lasting several years are common.

Namibia divides west to east into the Namib, the Central Plateau and the Kalahari. The Namib, 80 to 130 km wide, is partly rocky and partly dunes; the cold Benguela Current, which also carries rich fish stocks, keeps the coast under 50 mm of rain a year. UNESCO's Namib Sand Sea holds two dune systems, an ancient semi-consolidated one beneath a younger active one, built from sand carried thousands of kilometers by rivers, ocean currents and wind; fog is the main water source, and endemic invertebrates, reptiles and mammals 'swim' and 'dive' in its loose sand.

The Central Plateau (975 to 1,980 m) is broken by hills, the Fish River Canyon and salt pans such as Etosha, with the Brandberg (2,573 m) on its western escarpment. Rainfall rises from about 250 mm in the south and west to more than 600 mm on the Caprivi Strip, and multiyear droughts are common. In Windhoek, December averages 24 °C and July 13 °C.

Namibia has elephants, rhinos and zebras.

Springboks and gemsboks live in the dry land. In the desert, some tiny animals dive into the sand. Dolphins swim near the coast.

Namibia is rich in wild animals. Antelopes and giraffes share the ranching country with cattle and sheep, and Etosha National Park, around the Etosha Pan, is a major place to see wildlife such as elephants, black rhinoceroses, springboks and gemsboks.

The desert has its own amazing creatures. In the Namib Sand Sea, insects, reptiles and small mammals have adapted to drink fog and to swim and dive into the loose sand, where they find shelter. Off the coast, the cold Benguela Current carries rich fish stocks.

Britannica describes Namibia as richly endowed with game, though poaching has seriously reduced it in parts of the north. Antelope and giraffes coexist with cattle and sheep throughout the ranching zone, and the Etosha Pan is a major game area. Protected areas include Etosha, Skeleton Coast, Namib-Naukluft and Sperrgebiet national parks, and the |Ai-|Ais and Fish River Canyon Park joined South Africa's Richtersveld National Park in 2003 as the |Ai-|Ais–Richtersveld Transfrontier Park.

In the Namib Sand Sea, UNESCO notes endemic invertebrates, reptiles and mammals adapted to fog as their water source and to the well-oxygenated subsurface sand. Plants in both deserts are described as exotic and fragile; varieties of aloe are common on the plateau, and trees become much more frequent in the north.

About 3.1 million people live in Namibia.

People speak many languages. Many people speak an Ovambo language at home. Many families raise cattle and sheep.

Many peoples live in Namibia. The largest group are the Ovambo, and there are also Kavango, Herero, Damara, Nama, Caprivian and San peoples, as well as people of European ancestry. English is the national language, but only a few people speak it at home; Ovambo languages are the most common home languages. Many Namibians speak two or more languages.

About half of all Namibians live in the far north. Less than 1 percent of the land can be farmed with crops, but almost two-thirds is good for grazing, so many families raise cattle and sheep. The population is young: about two in five people are 16 or younger.

Britannica describes about 85 percent of Namibians as Black, about two-thirds of them Ovambo, followed by the Kavango, Herero, Damara and Caprivian peoples; about 10 percent belong to communities such as the Nama and Rehoboth Basters, and about 5 percent are of European ancestry. English is the national language but the home language of only about 3 percent; Ovambo languages are the most widely spoken at home, followed by Nama-Damara, and many people also use Afrikaans or German. Some 80 to 90 percent are at least formally Christian; about half the population is Protestant, mostly Lutheran.

About half the population lives in the far north, about 15 percent in the commercial ranching areas around Windhoek and more than a tenth in Greater Windhoek. Less than 1 percent of land is arable, while almost two-thirds suits pastoralism. Some two-fifths of people are 16 or younger.