TOP 21 best attractions in Namibia

The South African coun­try of Namib­ia is locat­ed between the ocean, desert and jun­gle. The sun shines here all year round, and the nat­ur­al mon­u­ments of the coun­try amaze with their beau­ty and attract many tourists.

Who comes to Namibia and why

The main wealth of Namib­ia is nature, so con­nois­seurs of pic­turesque land­scapes, sand dunes and incred­i­ble canyons will def­i­nite­ly like it in Namib­ia. Incred­i­ble adven­tures await you here — what is the old­est Namib desert on earth, where you can see a wide vari­ety of land­scapes and African ani­mals.

Also in the desert there are many inter­est­ing places worth vis­it­ing. For exam­ple, the Sos­su­flei plain with incred­i­ble land­scapes, or the Dead Val­ley, which attracts thou­sands of tourists. Be sure to vis­it the Fishriv­er Canyon, which is the largest in Africa, and take a look at the Spitzkoppe rock, cho­sen by climbers.

Namib­ia has many nature reserves and nation­al parks that are also worth a vis­it if you love nature. In the Namib Desert is the Etosha Nation­al Park, where you can see var­i­ous ani­mals and take beau­ti­ful pho­tos.

Water­berg Park is home to endan­gered endan­gered antelopes and vul­tures. And in the Cape Cross Fur Seal Sanc­tu­ary, you can watch these fun­ny ani­mals and buy a sou­venir as a keep­sake.

In addi­tion to nat­ur­al attrac­tions, Namib­ia has muse­ums and inter­est­ing exam­ples of archi­tec­ture. If you are inter­est­ed in learn­ing the his­to­ry of this coun­try, then go to the Nation­al Muse­um, where you will be told about the tra­di­tions of the local pop­u­la­tion, cul­ture and way of life.

The Swakop­mund City Muse­um has a col­lec­tion of semi-pre­cious stones and exhibits relat­ed to the his­to­ry of the city. And in the Taxi­dermy Hall you can look at stuffed ani­mals and vis­it the snake park. If you like archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ments, then you should vis­it the old Ger­man fort and the cas­tles of Sander­burg, Schw­erins­burg and Heinzburg.

Cultural attractions and museums

Ghost town Kolmanskop

In the vicin­i­ty of Lüderitz is the ghost town of Kol­man­skop. At the begin­ning of the last cen­tu­ry, it was seized by a dia­mond fever. For ten years, Kol­man­skop was a live­ly city: beau­ti­ful hous­es, a sta­di­um, a school, a hos­pi­tal and even a swim­ming pool were built here. But the dis­cov­ery of rich­er dia­mond deposits led to the des­o­la­tion of the city. When peo­ple left it, the desert began to rule here. In 1980, some build­ings were restored, and now Kol­man­skop serves as a muse­um.

Swakopmund City Museum

In 1951, the city muse­um was opened in Swakop­mund. Its basis was the col­lec­tion of Dr. A. Weber. The muse­um is housed in a for­mer cus­toms build­ing that was shelled by a Ger­man war­ship in 1914. It was restored only after 40 years and trans­ferred to the muse­um.

The expo­si­tion is rep­re­sent­ed by a col­lec­tion of semi-pre­cious stones, a col­lec­tion ded­i­cat­ed to the his­to­ry of the city, as well as panora­mas of the seabed and the desert.

taxidermy hall

A few kilo­me­ters from Wind­hoek, the cap­i­tal of the coun­try, towards the inter­na­tion­al air­port, there is the Taxi­dermy Hall. Stuffed ani­mals of a wide vari­ety of ani­mals that can be found in Namib­ia are exhib­it­ed here.

The design of the Hall is made in the style of the desert, there is also a cozy restau­rant and a snake park, in which poi­so­nous snakes are pre­sent­ed to the atten­tion of vis­i­tors, locat­ed in large glass enclo­sures.

National Museum of Namibia

The col­lec­tion of the Nation­al Muse­um is rep­re­sent­ed by a huge num­ber of exhibits (more than 2 mil­lion) that tell about the cul­ture, his­to­ry and nature of Namib­ia.

The muse­um has two exhi­bi­tion halls: one is locat­ed in a Ger­man fort, and the oth­er tells about the tra­di­tions of local res­i­dents, and the items of every­day life and cul­ture of the peo­ples of this coun­try are pre­sent­ed as exhibits. There is a ref­er­ence library, which any­one can use, and a spe­cial room for chil­dren, where they can look at and touch the exhibits.

Goba meteorite

It is the largest known mete­orite in the world. Pre­sum­ably, the Goba mete­orite fell to earth at least 30 thou­sand years ago. And the age of the “guest” from out­er space is more than 100 mil­lion years.

This nick­el and iron mete­orite, weigh­ing 50 tons, was found in the 1920s. In the 1980s, a spe­cial stone amphithe­ater sur­round­ing the Goba mete­orite was equipped, and a stage was built where you can see all the infor­ma­tion about this amaz­ing space guest.

natural attractions

Namib Desert

Sci­en­tists esti­mate the age of the Namib Desert at 60–80 mil­lion years — this is the old­est desert on earth. It amazes with its land­scapes: here you can see wan­der­ing dunes, canyons of dried up rivers, vast waste­lands, small oases and relief rocks.

Wel­witschia grows in the desert, which is dis­tin­guished by huge leaves, where water sup­plies are stored in case of a severe drought. In the cen­ter of Namib is the Namib-Nauk­luft Park, home to giraffes, ele­phants, rhi­nos and lions.

fish river canyon

It is the largest canyon in Africa, the size of which is sec­ond only to the Grand Canyon, which is locat­ed in Amer­i­ca. It is 161 km long, 550 m deep and 27 km wide.

Tourists can enjoy beau­ti­ful views from the obser­va­tion decks. Here you will see aloe thick­ets, ther­mal springs and basalt rocks. You can go hik­ing in the canyon under the super­vi­sion of expe­ri­enced instruc­tors.

Sossusvlei

In the south of the Namib Desert is the Sos­su­fley Plain, which was formed due to the Tsaushab Riv­er. Its waters nev­er reach the Atlantic Ocean and go into the sand between the dunes of the plain. For thou­sands of years, the riv­er has brought clay here, look­ing for a way through the dunes. Thanks to this, unique land­scapes have been formed that attract tourists from all over the world.

The dunes in the val­ley are among the high­est in the world — their height reach­es 380 m. Due to the high iron con­tent in the sand and fre­quent oxi­da­tion process­es, the col­or of the dunes acquires var­i­ous shades — from pink to fiery orange.

Dunes of Swakopmund

Not far from the cities of Swakop­mund and Walvis Bay, there is an unusu­al place that is appre­ci­at­ed by out­door enthu­si­asts.

Excur­sions on the dunes on four-wheeled motor­cy­cles and jeeps are very pop­u­lar among tourists. One of the most beau­ti­ful and high­est dunes is locat­ed in the vicin­i­ty of Walvis Bay. Palm trees grow next to it, in the shade of which you can camp or have a pic­nic.

dead valley

Dead Val­ley is locat­ed in the mid­dle of the Namib Desert. This is a huge clay pit sur­round­ed by high dunes. Inside it you can see hun­dreds of dried trees.

Sci­en­tists believe that thou­sands of years ago there was an oasis here, so the con­di­tions for the growth of trees were the most favor­able. But after a while, the dunes began to block the access of water to the oasis, which led to a drought. As a result, the trees dried up, and the Dead Val­ley was formed, which today is one of the most pop­u­lar attrac­tions in Namib­ia.

Spitzkoppe

The Spitzkoppe is a mas­sive gran­ite rock that is over 100 mil­lion years old. Around it is the epony­mous nature reserve.

Mount Spitzkoppe is a favorite among climbers, although it is not the high­est peak in the region. At the foot of the cliff, you can see draw­ings of Bush­men, and exot­ic ani­mals walk around the neigh­bor­hood: zebras, slen­der gazelles and imper­turbable antelopes.

National parks

Etosha National Park

The reserve is locat­ed in the Namib Desert. Here you will see var­i­ous ani­mals: antelopes, lions, chee­tahs, giraffes, rhi­nos, zebras and ele­phants.

Birds and ele­phants inhab­it the Andoni plains in great num­bers. They come here to quench their thirst and take “dust baths”. If you want to pho­to­graph black rhi­noc­er­os­es, then it is best to stop at the Okaukueyo reser­voir, where spe­cial spot­lights are installed.

Waterberg Park

This nation­al park is locat­ed on a hill and is char­ac­ter­ized by a large amount of sub­trop­i­cal veg­e­ta­tion. It was cre­at­ed in the sec­ond half of the last cen­tu­ry with the aim of pre­serv­ing and breed­ing Kan­na antelopes. How­ev­er, today about 25 species of rare ani­mals and more than 200 species of birds live here.

On the cliffs of Okarakuwiza, vul­tures nest and hatch their chicks. This is the only breed­ing place in the coun­try, there­fore, since 1985, one of the main goals of the park has been to ensure the sur­vival of these birds.

Skeleton Coast

The Skele­ton Coast is a coastal area between the Ugab and Kunene rivers, the length of which is about 2000 km. Here you can see the remains of ships that were wrecked here.

The local land­scape is diverse: there are moun­tain ranges, and high dunes, and stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful canyons. You can get to the Skele­ton Coast by sea or by car.

National Marine Aquarium of Namibia

Swakop­mund City Aquar­i­um is one of the most pop­u­lar places in Namib­ia vis­it­ed by tourists. Here you will see a huge glass tank mea­sur­ing 12 by 8 m. It has an oval shape, inside there is a tun­nel and view­ing win­dows, which are locat­ed at dif­fer­ent angles.

Also, the atten­tion of vis­i­tors is pro­vid­ed by 17 small­er aquar­i­ums, which also con­tain the inhab­i­tants of the seas and oceans.

Fur seal sanctuary

The reserve is locat­ed on Cape Cross — this is the largest pop­u­la­tion of fur seals in South Africa. The peak of the mat­ing sea­son of these ani­mals falls on Novem­ber and Decem­ber, and at this time about 200 thou­sand seals can be seen on the cape. Wood­en pas­sages are laid through their rook­eries, along which tourists walk, view­ing plat­forms are equipped, and sou­venirs and fun­ny lit­tle things are sold here.

Notable buildings

Duvisib Castle

Duvis­ib Cas­tle ris­es in the vicin­i­ty of the city of Mal­ta­hoe, sur­round­ed by red hills. This is a mas­sive quad­ran­gu­lar struc­ture with loop­holes and tow­ers. The cas­tle was built by Baron Von Wolf for his wife. Today, the build­ing hous­es a muse­um dis­play­ing the baron’s col­lec­tion: weapons, works of art and lux­u­ry goods.

jewelry factory

The North­ern Indus­tri­al Zone of Wind­hoek is home to a jew­el­ry fac­to­ry whose main activ­i­ty is the pro­cess­ing of pre­cious stones.

Tourists will be able to watch with their own eyes the process of the appear­ance of dia­monds, which will shine with all their facets after grind­ing and pro­cess­ing. If you like some stones, you can pur­chase them in the store opened at the fac­to­ry at a reduced cost.

german fort

An old Ger­man fort built at the begin­ning of the last cen­tu­ry is locat­ed near Wind­hoek.

Every day there is a cer­e­mo­ny of solemn rais­ing and low­er­ing of the nation­al flag of the coun­try. Near the fort there is a water­ing hole, which is illu­mi­nat­ed at night. It attracts many ani­mals that you can see from a spe­cial view­ing plat­form.

The castles of Sanderburg, Schwerinsburg and Heinzburg

All three stone struc­tures were built by the Ger­man archi­tect V. Sander. The cas­tles look like they’ve stepped out of the pages of fairy tale books, with bat­tle­ments and medieval tur­rets. Heinzburg hosts a lux­u­ry hotel, Sander­burg is pri­vate­ly owned, and Schw­erins­burg Cas­tle serves as the res­i­dence of the Ital­ian ambas­sador.

Factory “Nakara”

In the cap­i­tal of Namib­ia, there is a fac­to­ry that pro­duces prod­ucts from the famous Swakara astrakhan fur, and then they are export­ed. High-qual­i­ty prod­ucts are made here: for exam­ple, acces­sories and cloth­ing made from ostrich leather. Here you can also buy spe­cial­ly processed skins of var­i­ous African ani­mals.