Fish River Canyon
Encyclopedia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
. It is the second largest canyon in the world and the largest in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, as well as the second most visited tourist attraction in Namibia. It features a gigantic ravine, in total about 100 miles (160.9 km) long, up to 27 km wide and in places almost 550 metres deep.
The Fish River
Fish River, Nambia
The Fish River is a river in Namibia. It is 650 km long, flowing from Hardap Dam near Mariental. The flow of the river is seasonal; in winter the river can dry up completely...
is the longest interior river in Namibia. It cuts deep into the plateau which is today dry, stony and sparsely covered with hardy drought-resistant plants. The river flows intermittently, usually flooding in late summer; the rest of the year it becomes a chain of long narrow pools. At the lower end of the Fish River Canyon, the hot springs resort of Ai-Ais
Ai-Ais Hot Springs
Ai-Ais Hot Springs meaning 'burning water' in the local Nama language, refers to the sulphurous thermal hot water springs found in the area. Pronounced "eye-ice", the natural hot-spring oasis is situated at the base of the mountain peaks at the southern end of Fish River Canyon, in the Karas Region...
is situated.
Public view points are near Hobas, a camp site 70 km north of Ai-Ais. This part of the canyon is part of the Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park
Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park
The ǀAi-ǀAis/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park is a peace park straddling the border between South Africa and Namibia. It was formed in 2003 by combining the Namibian ǀAi-ǀAis Hot Springs Game Park and the South African Richtersveld National Park....
. The other 90 km of this canyon are privately owned.
Geology
Lower down, a granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
complex system is exposed to form a characteristic river bed that results in forms like Fingerspitze. In this area, a fault runs north-south, which accounts for the gorge-like channel and the presence of hot sulphurous springs.
Activities
Due to flash floods and high summer temperatures which frequently exceed 45°C, the hike is only open in winter. The season starts 1 May and ends 15 September (winter time in the Southern Hemisphere). A medical certificate is required to attempt the hike, and groups must consist of at least 3 participants older than 12 years.