Namib-Naukluft

Formed in 1979 by merging several earlier reserves, it is the largest national park in Africa and one of the largest in the world, covering much of the Namib Desert, reckoned the oldest desert on the planet with at least 55 million years of unbroken aridity. Its dunes at Sossusvlei are among the highest anywhere, the celebrated Big Daddy topping 325 metres, and their red-orange colour comes from the iron in the sand oxidising over millions of years of exposure. Beside Sossusvlei lies Deadvlei, a white clay pan dotted with acacias that died more than 600 years ago and which, in a climate this dry, have not rotted but been scorched black by the sun, leaving a surreal and much-photographed landscape. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2013.