Brandberg Mountain

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Seen Brandberg massif from the south

The Brandberg Massif ( often just Brandenberg; Damara: Daures, Otjiherero: Omukuruvaro ) is a mountain massif in Namibia, which also includes the Königstein heard, which is the highest mountain in Namibia with a height of 2573 m. The Brandberg massif is located in the Erongo Region in the west of the country, about 90 km from the Atlantic Ocean. The Brandberg is on average 2,500 meters high and rises above the surrounding land around 2000 meters. A prominent location also has the Zisabspitze ( 2169 m) on the edge of the Brandberg Massif. The entire collection is oval in shape and occupies an area of 760 km ².

The name Brandberg is from the glowing color in which the mountain appears when the sun shines on him from the west. The Herero called the Brandberg also Omukuruwaro ( Mountain of God ).

The standing in the climate of semi-arid solid now and then profited on the western flank of fog, the use of the Namib. The average annual rainfall is on the eastern flank only 30-40 mm.

The next town is Uis, about 30 km from the Brandberg.

"In early January 1955, conducted by the surveyor Mendes de Gouvea, Windhoek, on behalf of the management, the measurement from the highest peaks of the Brandberg, Königstein ( 2573 meters). The ascent was made on the Baswald - channel ( Bass Forest - channel ); Mendes de Gouvea was accompanied by the famous mountaineers Albert Jagdhuber and Franz Baswald who had asked him as a leader and supports in this work. The Baswald - channel was named after the Austrian Franz Baswald ( born 1928) named. "

Geology

The Brandberg massif is a granite intrusion that has arisen before about 130 million years ago in the geological epoch of the Cretaceous period. The uplift and erosion of about 5 km to-face rock happened before about 60-80 million years ago.

Rock paintings

On Brandenberg, to date, approximately 50,000 rock paintings at 1000 localities discovered mostly overhangs and in inaccessible terrain, which indicate a high abundance of animals in the past. The most famous of them is the 45 cm White Lady ( White Lady ), which was discovered in 1917 by Reinhard Maack.

In addition to this putative warrior who can also be interpreted as a shaman, many more hunters are seen with spears or bows. These are surrounded by the typical wild game such as oryx and zebras. The age of the drawings is estimated to be two to four thousand years. Whether this is only hunting scenes to summon the hunting happiness or trance dances of shamans that heal with the help of spirits in animal form, is not clear.

Due to the mass tourism, many of the paintings were smeared and destroyed the famous lady has since been protected by wire mesh. A guide to 2 - hour hike (complete, there and back ) to be taken - to prevent further vandalism, must for the 1.5.

The drawings were largely documented by Harald Pager of the University of Cologne. Until his death in 1985, he recorded in 8 years approximately 43,000 drawings of 879 rock art sites on 6 km plastic wrap.

More rock paintings and petroglyphs are available at the Spitzkoppe and Twyfelfontein.

Flora and Fauna

In the valleys grow mainly Stinkbuscharten, wild figs and acacia trees, including the endemic Brandberg acacia Acacia montis - usti who advance with their roots to the ground water. Between the rocks and in the trees hyraxes and lizards are common. Further up the vegetation is considerably more sparse, here are, inter alia, the balm bushes such as the Bottle Tree namaquanum Pachypodium and the quiver tree Aloe dichotoma encountered.

The Brandberg Massif got recently by the sensational discovery of a new insect order, the so-called gladiators that occur only in this region, indigenous, into the spotlight of research. On the discovery and identification of species, a German - Namibian student at the University of Bremen played a significant role, while another German contributed to further research with. The gladiators remain present (2005 ) nor in the in-depth exploration by Insektologen.

Other living fossils represent two members of the genus Alavesia from the family of humpback dance flies ( Hybotidae ) dar. By 2007 we knew these animals only from 112-89 million years old amber inclusions from northern Spain and Burma. Sinclair and Kirk- Spriggs reported in 2009 that in 1998 the first living flies of this genus could be detected on the Brandberg Massif.