The red dunes of the Namib
Sossusvlei
Some of the tallest sand dunes on earth, coloured orange-red by iron, around white clay pans.
Why Sossusvlei is dune red
Sossusvlei is a clay pan in the Namib Desert of Namibia, ringed by sand dunes that reach over three hundred metres. The sand grains are coated with iron oxide, in effect rust, which gives them an orange to deep red colour. Older dunes further inland are redder. At sunrise one side of each dune glows and the other is in black shadow, divided by a knife-edge crest. Nearby is Deadvlei, a pan of cracked white clay where camel thorn trees died several centuries ago when the dunes cut off their water. Their dark, dry trunks still stand. White ground, black trees, red dunes and blue sky make one of the most photographed scenes in Africa.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Sossusvlei
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Sossusvlei" on Wikipedia. If you know Sossusvlei and we have it wrong, tell us.
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The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Varanasi In: Marcin Białek, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Nagpur In: Gppande, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Luang Prabang La: Shelly Zohar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Cinque Terre It: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my pho, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Roussillon Fr: Hawobo at German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, source
- Amsterdam Nl: ESA (European Space Agency), Attribution, source