Introducing Namibia

Namibia is a vast and mostly desolate territory that spreads over the southwesters regions of the southern African subcontinent. Bisected by the Tropic of Caprivorn, Namibia is bordered in the west by the 1 500 kilometer Atlantic coastline, in the north by the Kunene and Okavango rivers beyond which are the republics of Angola and Zambia, in the east by Botswana and in the southeast and south by the republic of South Africa.

Included within Namibia's straight boundaries is the Caprivi Strip. The Caprivi Strip forms a long, narrow stretch of land reaching eastward to the Zambezi River from Namibia's northeaster region. Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana come together at the small town of Kazungula and the common border of Zimbabwe and Botswana is the shortest of the world's international frontiers, which is only 45 meters.

Walvis Bay, which provides a well protected anchorage on a coast not noted for its natural harbours, was annexed to the British Crown in 1878 and in 1884 it became an integral part of the Cape Colony. After lengthy negotiations, Walvis Bay was finally returned to Namibia by South Africa in 1994. It formed a strategic and economically valuable enclave of 1 124 square meters in extent, lying roughly midway between the Gariep / Orange and Kunene rivers.

Namibia is over 820 000 square kilometers in size, it measures 1320 kilometers in length from north to south and 400 kilometers to 1000 kilometers in width excluding the Caprivi Strip from west to east. Namibia is sparsely populated; the total of its culturally diverse peoples stands at just 1.5 million some 150000 of whom live in and around Namibia's capital Windhoek.