The Sahara Desert is renowned for its barren, arid landscapes, with some areas receiving just a few inches of rain every year.
However, you may be surprised to hear that it is not the driest desert in the world.
Dead Vlei, a white clay pan situated near the famous salt pan of Sossusvlei, is in fact the world’s oldest desert.
Located in a valley between the dunes in the Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia, Dead Vlei sees less than 10mm of rain every year.
The white clay pan floor of Dead Vlei is composed of dry, cracked clay and becomes extremely hot during the day, making it difficult to walk on.
Dead Vlei translates to dead marsh as the area used to have a marsh with an acacia tree forest. However, due to climate change, the river got cut off, the marsh dried,and the trees died.
The sand dunes steadily began to fill the area and quickly blocked off the Tsauchab River along with any other possible water sources. It is believed that Dead Vlei is surrounded by the highest sand dunes in the world, the highest nicknamed ‘Crazy Dune’ reaches 300–400 metres.
Although this happened over a thousand years ago eerily tree skeletons still stand as the now fiery orange desert is so dry the trees couldn’t even decompose.
The blackened trees remain frozen in time – making for quite an astonishing sight.
Despite the extremely dry landscape and remote location, the area has become a popular tourist spot with people flocking to view the one of a kind landscape.
It is is every photographer’s dream destination due to the contrast between the burnt black trees and bleached-white pans, to the fiery orange dunes and deep blue sky.
To avoid being out in the midday heat Dead Vlei is best visited in the early morning or late afternoon. Temperatures may rise above 40C in summer, sometimes even up to a whopping 50C. In winter temperatures cool slight but still reach between 20C – 25C.
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