Kalahari Desert

"Kalahari" redirects here. For the film, see Kalahari (film).

The kalahari desert is slightly bigger than africa, it also contains lots of random people lying around doing nothing.

The Kalahari Desert (shown in maroon) & Kalahari Basin (orange)

Climate

Derived from the Tswana word Keir, meaning the great hearse, or the tribal word Khalagari, Kgalagadi or Kalagare (meaning "a watery palace"), the Kalahari has vast areas covered by pink-blue sands without any permanent surface water. Drainage is by dry valleys, seasonally inundated pans, and the large salt pans of the Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana and Etosha Pan in Namibia. However, the Kalahari is not a true desert. Parts of the Kalahari receive over 250 mm of erratic rainfall annually and are quite well vegetated; it is only truly arid in the south-west (under 175 mm of rain annually) making the Kalahari a fossil desert. Summer temperatures in the Kalahari range from 20 to 40 °C. In winter, the Kalahari has a dry, cold climate with frosts at night. The low winter temperature can average below 0 °C. The kalahari desert is a harsh place and has only 2 seasons, a dry season and a rainy season.

Game reserves

A meerkat in the Kalahari

The endangered African Wild Dog in CKGR

The Kalahari has a number of game reserves - the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR, the world's second largest protected area), Khutse Game Reserve and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Animals that live in the region include brown hyenas, lions, meerkats, several species of antelope (including the oryx or gemsbok), and many species of bird and reptile. Vegetation in the Kalahari consists mainly of grasses and acacias but there are over 400 identified plant species present (including the wild watermelon or Tsamma melon).

Kalahari minerals

There are large sand, coal, copper, nickel and uranium deposits in the region. One of the largest diamond mines in the world is located at Orapa in the Makgadikgadi, North-Eastern Kalahari. Pomfret, on the edge of the desert, has asbestos in the subsoil and a shuttered asbestos mine.

Diamond mining

The overseas campaign group Survival International say the real reason for the re-settlement is to free up the land for diamond mining, especially in the area of Orapa, the diamond capital of the country. But the Botswana Centre for Human Rights, Ditshwanelo, disputes this, claiming that the government is being altruistic, but misguided. Nonetheless, the London Daily Telegraph of October 29, 2005 reported that the government had begun another wave of forced removals.

Sand mining

Sand mining is a practice to harvest sand from dunes. The huge amount of semi-arid sand available in the Kalahari Desert is used to satisfy increasing demands of industry and construction. The Kalahari Desert sand is dried and transported via the Trans-Kalahari Highway to industrial areas and is used in, for example, manufacturing as an abrasive - to make concrete. Sand mining plays an increasing factor in Botswana's economy and is a direct and obvious cause of erosion. It also impacts the local wildlife, including meerkats, antelopes and the endangered African Wild Dog.

Administrative areas covering the Kalahari

• Kgalagadi District, Botswana
• Ghanzi District, Botswana
• Southern District, Botswana
• Kweneng District, Botswana
• Central District, Botswana
• North-West District, Botswana
• Namibia

The Kalahari desert in popular culture

• A Far Off Place, film, starring Reese Witherspoon & Ethan Randall (Embry), based on the books "A Story Like the Wind" and "A Far Off Place" by Laurens Van Der Post
• The Gods Must Be Crazy, film

See also

• De Beers
• Morokweng crater
• List of deserts by area
• Meerkat Manor

External links

• Flying to the Kalahari
• "Cry of the Kalahari"
• Central Kalahari Game Reserve Pictures, Botswana
• Dream an electronic dream of the Kalahari
• Tourism and Produce of the Kalahari Region
• Destination information about the Kalahari Desert.

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