Ecosystems

Kalahari Desert

Citation Formats

General Reference

Nature Atlas. "Kalahari Desert." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-nature.interactiveatlas.org/ecosystems/kalahari-desert.

APA Style

Nature Atlas. (n.d.). Kalahari Desert. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-nature.interactiveatlas.org/ecosystems/kalahari-desert

BibTeX

@misc{natureatlas-kalahari-desert,
  author = {Nature Atlas},
  title = {Kalahari Desert},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-nature.interactiveatlas.org/ecosystems/kalahari-desert},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Despite its name, the Kalahari is not a true desert. It is a large semi-arid sandy savanna covering about 900,000 square kilometers of southern Africa, with a broader basin extending past 2.5 million square kilometers across several countries. Its denser ground cover supports far more plant and animal life than a genuine desert such as the neighboring Namib. The name likely derives from the Tswana word for the great thirst, or a waterless place.

Facts

Area (sq km)

900,000 1

Cross-Tradition Connections