A red-sand semi-desert across southern Africa, home to the San people and famous black-maned desert lions.
Area
900,000 km²
Continent
Africa
Location
Southern Africa
Temperature
40°C summers, frosty nights
Rainfall
150–250 mm a year
Climate
Semi-desert
About the Kalahari
The Kalahari is a sea of red sand spread across Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Just enough rain falls for grasses and hardy trees to grow, so it teems with life — meerkats, oryx and the famous black-maned Kalahari lions. The San people have hunted and gathered here for tens of thousands of years.
Did you know?
Parts of it get just enough rain to grow grasses, so it is really a semi-desert rather than a true one.
Highlights
- Red sand coloured by iron oxide
- Home to meerkats and desert lions
- The ancestral land of the San people
Photo gallery
Life in the Kalahari
Animals, birds and plants that have adapted to survive this landscape.
Animals
Meerkat
A sociable mongoose that stands sentry over its desert burrow colonies.
Gemsbok
A striking southern-African oryx with rapier horns and a black-and-white face.
Caracal
A tawny desert cat with black ear-tufts, famous for leaping at birds.
Birds
Ostrich
The world’s largest bird — flightless, but able to sprint at 70 km/h.
Lappet-faced vulture
A huge, powerful vulture that soars above African and Arabian deserts.
Sandgrouse
Flies vast distances to water and soaks it up in its breast feathers.
Trees & plants
Camelthorn tree
A deep-rooted thorn tree that shades the red dunes of the Kalahari.
Acacia (thorn tree)
Flat-topped thorn trees that survive on scarce desert groundwater.
Day & night in the Kalahari
Deserts are famous for their extreme temperature swings. Flip between day and night to feel the difference — these are typical figures for a subtropical desert.
Midday sun
+45°C
typical daytime high
Blistering daytime heat gives way to surprisingly cool nights — clear skies let the day’s warmth escape, and the temperature can tumble by 30°C or more after dark.
Recorded range for the Kalahari: 40°C summers, frosty nights