Derived from the Tswana word Kgala, meaning “the great thirst”.The Kalahari desert is part of the huge sand basin that reaches from the Orange River up to Angola, in the west to Namibia and in the east to Zimbabwe. The erosion of soft stone formations created the sand masses. The wind shaped the sand ridges, which are so typical of the landscape in the Kalahari.

Only in recent geological history, 10 to 20,000 years ago, were the dunes stabilised through vegetation, so the area should actually be called a dry savannah. Unlike the dunes of the Namib Desert, those of the Kalahari are stable and not wandering.
Despite its aridity, the Kalahari supports a variety of fauna and flora. The dominant vegetation: grasses, thorny shrubs and Acacia trees and many other herbs can survive long drought periods of more than ten months every year. It is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in Southern Africa extending 900,000 km2 (362,500 sq. mi.), covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari supports some animals and plants because most of it is not true desert. Ancient dry riverbeds traverse the Central Northern reaches of the Kalahari and provide standing pools of water during the rainy season. Animals that live in the region include brown hyena, lion, leopard, cheetah, meerkat(suricate), giraffe, warthog, jackal and several species of antelope including eland, gemsbok, springbok, hartebeest, steenbok, kudu, duiker and many species of birds and reptiles. The remarkable nests of the weaverbirds in the camel thorn trees and in other acacias are a frequent sight in the Kalahari. These inconspicuous little birds, which resemble sparrows, live in huge communal nests with a diameter of up to two metres. At any given time, hundreds of lively little birds are breeding and feeding their youngsters in such a nesting colony

TheSan people, or Bushmen, have lived in the Kalahari for 20,000 years as hunter-gatherers. Bushmen rarely drink water; they get most of their water requirements from plant roots and desert melons found on or under the desert floor. They often store water in the blown-out shells of ostrich eggs. They live in huts built from local materials, the frame is made of branches and the roof is thatched with long grass.

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