The Fish River Canyon sits in southern Namibia’s arid landscape like a wound in the earth’s crust that never healed. The river that made it, the Fish River, which flows only seasonally and rarely powerfully, seems inadequate to the task of having carved something this large. The explanation is geological time: the canyon has been forming for approximately 500 million years, with the most dramatic deepening in the last 50 million years as the African continent uplifted and the river’s erosive power increased.
Die Zahlen
Length: 160km (the full canyon system from north to south) Maximum width: 27km at the widest sections Maximum depth: 550m at the deepest points Rock age: The basement gneiss exposed at the canyon floor is approximately 1,800 million years old, among the oldest exposed rock in the world
Die Geologie
The canyon cuts through multiple geological formations. The canyon walls display the layered sequence of Namibian geological history: the ancient Precambrian basement at the bottom, overlain by sedimentary sequences from subsequent geological periods, and the surface rocks at the rim representing the most recent geological events. See the geology of Fish River Canyon.
The canyon’s creation required several conditions: the presence of ancient fault lines that weakened the rock along the canyon’s course; the uplift of southern Africa that gave the river sufficient gradient to erode efficiently; and the prolonged period of erosion that ultimately produced the current scale.
The exposed basement gneiss at the canyon floor represents rock that formed deep in the Earth’s crust approximately 1,800 million years ago and has been brought to the surface by 1,800 million years of erosion above it. Standing at the canyon rim and looking down at this rock is a specific and vertiginous geological experience.
The Ecosystem
The canyon creates a microclimate significantly different from the surrounding desert. The canyon floor retains moisture from occasional river flow and from springs along the walls; the cliffs provide shade for plants that could not survive in the open desert above; and the thermal mass of the rock walls moderates temperature extremes.
Trees: Camelthorn acacia, Quiver tree (kokerboom), and wild fig grow in the canyon, sustained by subsurface moisture.
Wildlife: Klipspringer, mountain zebra, leopard (rarely seen), baboon (common on the canyon rim), bat species in the cliff faces. The Fish River holds catfish and yellowfish in its flow periods.
Birds: Verreaux’s eagle nests on the cliff faces; lanner falcon is common; the canyon cliff habitat supports a range of species including white-backed vulture and various rock-loving small birds.
How to See It
Day visitors: The rim road from Hobas provides multiple viewpoints along a 10km stretch. The main viewpoint is the most dramatic; the secondary viewpoints at different positions along the rim give different perspectives on the canyon geometry.
Hikers: The 85km trail from Hikers’ Point to Ai-Ais covers the canyon floor over 4 to 5 days. See the hiking trail guide.
Fotografie: The main viewpoint produces the most commonly seen images. The rim road secondary viewpoints produce less-photographed angles. Dawn and dusk are the photography windows; midday light flattens the canyon walls and reduces the depth impression dramatically.