Etosha pan

The Etosha Pan (formerly also Etosa or Etosha Pan ) is the bottom of a former lake in northern Namibia and part of the Etosha National Park. The name Etosha has its origin in the Ovambo language and means something like " great white place". They, together with the Cuvelai system and the Oponono Lake a special wetland according to the Ramsar Convention.

It extends over 4760 square kilometers with a maximum length of 120 km and a maximum width of 55 kilometers. The pan is about 1,000 m above sea level and is part of the Kalahari valley that extends over large parts of Botswana, eastern and northern Namibia.

Discovery by Europeans

Although the area of today's national parks to local tribes - Ovambo, Herero and San - was known as grazing and hunting area for centuries, the Swedish explorer John Charles Andersson and the English scientist Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, the first Europeans were only 1851 in this area. In his travel and research report " Lake Ngami " wrote Andersson: "During the first day, we crossed a huge depression, Etosha called that covered a salt crust and its wooded edge is clearly apparent. In Africa such comparable bodies often called ' salt pans '. The surface consists of greenish clay with scattered small sandstone boulders of purple color. In some rainy seasons, told us the Ovambo had flooded the area and then looked like a lake; but now it was completely dry and the soil interspersed heavily with salt. "

The two also made in Fort Namutoni rest.

In the 1860s also attracted Dorsland trekkers ( thirsty land executor ) of the Transvaal, South Africa, coming here by on their way to Angola.

1876 ​​roamed the American commercial travelers Gerald McKiernan South West Africa, came to crossing the Namib to Etosha Pan and discovered the source in today's Okaukuejo.

From 1884 to 1914 was the Etosha Pan part of the colony of German South West Africa.

Geology

The Etosha Pan is a clay pan with salt content and has a characteristic white and greenish surface. In contrast to the smaller side pans, the Etosha Pan is not on the characteristics of a traditional salt pan.

The valley was formed by tectonic activity before 2 - 4 million years. Before 4-10 million years, there gathered water and formed by various tributaries, but are no longer detectable today, a lake ( Ekuma Lake). By changing the rivers - it is believed that the Kunene also formerly fed the lake - the lake dried out and left behind today's lime and salt pan. The year-round sparse vegetation gives the Etosha Pan their characteristic described above staining. Outside of the actual pan there are numerous natural water bodies by artesian springs ( water is pumped with pressure at the surface ), the water table or contact sources ( formations of different permeability meet).

In particularly rich rain years the Etosha Pan runs about 10 cm high full and then attracts thousands of flamingos, waders and other water birds, which also breed here. The water supplied in good rainy years, some tributaries of the Kunene River, for example, the Ekuma and Oshigambo in the northeast and the Omuramba Ovambo in the east. The average rainfall is from November to February approximately 410-440 mm. The water then has a twice as high salt content as sea water.

The Etosha area is characterized by the monumental recordings in 1968 turned Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey become known.