Kgalagadi

Africa's first formal transfrontier park (2000), a merger of South Africa's Kalahari Gemsbok and Botswana's Gemsbok

Area

38,000 km²

Protection category

UICN II

Parque nacional — what the IUCN categories mean

Declared in

1931

Region

Southern Africa

Climate

Tropical, Árido / desértico, Templado, Mediterráneo

Best time

May to September

Length of its routes

3–4 days

Difficulty of its routes

Media

Desert

Plan your visit

Best time: May to September
Length of its routes: 3–4 days
Difficulty of its routes: Media
Area: 38,000 km²

Highlight

Africa's first formal transfrontier park (2000), a merger of South Africa's Kalahari Gemsbok and Botswana's Gemsbok

Its origins go back to 1931 with the creation of Kalahari Gemsbok National Park on the South African side; in 2000, after decades of informal joint management across an unfenced border, South Africa and Botswana formally merged their respective parks to create the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, one of the first formally unified peace parks in Africa, with no internal border restrictions for wildlife nor, largely, for visitors holding the right permits. The park protects a semi-desert ecosystem of red Kalahari dunes and is celebrated for its dark-maned lions, nicknamed the black-maned lions of the Kalahari, whose darker colouring — still under scientific study — may be tied to heat regulation or to signalling social standing between males.