Place of the month: the Namib Desert

Red dunes on the edge of the Atlantic

Place of the month · October 2026 · 1 min read

The oldest desert in the world, its red dunes sculpted by the wind, seen from above: the place of the month for October 2026.

The oldest desert in the world

The Namib Desert runs along the Atlantic coast of Namibia for nearly 2,000 kilometres. Considered the oldest desert in the world, it has been arid for tens of millions of years.

Seen from above

From space, the Namib draws a painting: long parallel dunes, sculpted by the wind, whose red comes from the iron oxide that colours the grains of sand. Near Sossusvlei, some dunes are among the highest in the world. On the edge of the ocean, the sand meets the cold waters of the Benguela current.

A World Heritage site

The Namib Sand Sea has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2013. It is part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, one of the largest in Africa.

Your turn

The images below come from the gallery. To create yours, the "Create your image here" button opens the creation on the dunes of Sossusvlei: the Satellite rendering reveals their colours, the Relief their shape.