This area is regarded as the oldest desert in the world and have experienced a state of semi-arid or arid at least 80 million years. Gersangnya circumstances caused by the decrease in dry water-cooled by the Benguela current along the coast. Less than 10 mm (0.4 inches) rain fell in the desert every year so it is almost barren.
A number of unique species of plants and plants found here. One of these is Welwitschia mirabilis, a kind of plant shrubs. Welwitschia renowned for its ability to survive in very dry conditions in the Namib, sometimes get a dew from the coast.
Although this desert uninhabited and inaccessible, there are settlements at Sesriem, close to the famous Sossusvlei sand dunes and a large group, which with 340 meters high is the highest sand dunes in the world. Complexity and regularity of dune patterns in the ocean sand hills have attracted the attention of geologists for decades, but unfortunately could not well understood.
The interaction between the charged air from the sea water through the south wind, and dry air from the desert haze and cause much stronger flow, causing the skipper was lost. Together with the Skeleton Coast to the north, known as a place of many shipwrecks. Some of them can be found about 50 meters on the mainland, because the desert is moving slowly westward toward the sea, reclaiming land over the years.
Namib Desert is an important place for the mining of tungsten, salt and diamonds.
Access via a small plane from Windhoek (the capital of Namibia, about 480 km from east central desert), Swakopmund and Walvis Bay on the north end of the desert, or overland on gravel road.
