 The Fish River Canyon is located in Namibia. It is one of the largest canyons in the world (definitely the largest in Africa), as well as the second most visited tourist attraction in Namibia. It features a gigantic ravine, in total about 100 mi (160 km) long, up to 27 km wide and in places almost 550 metres deep. It has been gouged out of the surface of the land in the course of 650 million years by the forces of water, wind, gravity and earth movements.
The Fish River is the longest interior river in Namibia, but its flow in the present is a puny trickle compared with the immense volume of water that poured down its length in ages past. It cuts deep into the plateau which is today dry, stony and sparsely covered with hardy drought resistant plants such as succulents. The river flows intermittently, usually coming down in flood in late summer, and when it ceases to flow it becomes a chain of long narrow pools on the sandy rock-strewn floor of the chasm. At the lower end of the Fish River Canyon, the hot springs resort of Ai-Ais provides an oasis in the desolate rocky wastes. |
