Red earth and dolomite hills
Compared with the southern section of Etosha National Park, the western region is less frequently included in tourist itineraries. However, it is also the area with the highest concentration of wildlife.
Visitors may encounter black rhinoceroses, black-faced impalas, lions, leopards and numerous antelope species, including roan antelope, sable antelope, springbok, oryx, red hartebeest and the small dik-dik. In addition, the area west of the Etosha Pan is the only part of the park where it is possible to see Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra.
The landscape here is characterised by red soils and hills composed of dolomite and limestone formations. It is on these ancient hills that large quantities of stromatolites, among the oldest fossils on Earth, have been discovered. Scientists believe that Etosha’s dolomite hills emerged from the seabed during the formation of Gondwana, the supercontinent that covered much of the Southern Hemisphere around 600 million years ago.