Empty highway road in a desert with a mountain in the distance

Namibia

Time Difference: EST + 6 hours   Current Time and Date in Namibia
Currency: Currency Converter  – Namibian Dollar (NAD); South African Rand (ZAR)
Travel Advisory: State Department Report Namibia
US Embassy in Namibia: windhoek.usembassy.gov

Namibia, is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although it does not border with Zimbabwe, less than 200 meters of riverbed (essentially the Zambia/Botswana border) separates them at their closest points.  The dry lands of Namibia were inhabited since early times by Bushmen, Damara, and Namaqua, and since about the 14th century AD by immigrating Bantu who came with the Bantu expansion.

Health: CDC Namibia
What to Pack
Weather: Namibia Weather
Communications: Dial 011 followed by country code 264

Travel Requirements

  • Passport
  • Visa required for all US Passport Holders, If you are not a US Passport holder,
    please consult the embassy in your region.

Diplomatic Missions

Permanent Mission of the Republic of Namibia to the UN
Namibia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
Address list of Namibian Embassies Abroad.

CLIMATE

Warm Season: September – January; Average high temperature above 85°F and average low of 65°F
Cold Season: May -July; Average high of 72°F and average low of 68°F
Language: English is the official language

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes

Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes has one of the largest concentrations of […] petroglyphs, i.e. rock engravings in Africa. Most of these well-preserved engravings represent rhinoceros, . The site also includes six painteelephant, ostrich and giraffe, as well as drawings of human and animal footprintsd rock shelters with motifs of human figures in red ochre. The objects excavated from two sections, date from the Late Stone Age. The site forms a coherent, extensive and high-quality record of ritual practices relating to hunter-gatherer communities in this part of southern Africa over at least 2,000 years, and eloquently illustrates the links between the ritual and economic practices of hunter-gatherers.

Namib Sand Sea

Namib Sand Sea is the only coastal desert in the world that includes extensive dune fields influenced by fog. Covering an area of over three million hectares and a buffer zone of 899,500 hectares, the site is composed of two dune systems, an ancient semi-consolidated one overlain by a younger active one. The desert dunes are formed by the transportation of materials thousands of kilometres from the hinterland, that are carried by river, ocean current and wind. It features gravel plains, coastal flats, rocky hills, inselbergs within the sand sea, a coastal lagoon and ephemeral rivers, resulting in a landscape of exceptional beauty. Fog is the primary source of water in the site, accounting for a unique environment in which  endemic invertebrates, reptiles and mammals adapt to an ever-changing variety of microhabitats and ecological niches.