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Makgadikgadi Pan
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The Makgadikgadi Pan is a large salt pan in northern Botswana, the largest salt flat complex in the world. These salt pans cover and form the bed of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi that started evaporating many millennia ago. Archaeological recovery in the Makgadikgadi has revealed the presence of prehistoric man through abundant finds of stone tools; some of these tools have been dated sufficiently early to establish their origin as earlier than the era of Homo sapiens.The area is home to one of Africa's biggest zebra populations, and usually only quad bikes are permitted on the fragile plains in single file.
Makgadikgadi is technically not a single pan but many pans with sandy desert in between, but it is all counted in the area estimate.
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The Makgadikgadi Pan is a large salt pan in northern Botswana, the largest salt flat complex in the world. These salt pans cover and form the bed of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi that started evaporating many millennia ago. Archaeological recovery in the Makgadikgadi has revealed the presence of prehistoric man through abundant finds of stone tools; some of these tools have been dated sufficiently early to establish their origin as earlier than the era of Homo sapiens.The area is home to one of Africa's biggest zebra populations, and usually only quad bikes are permitted on the fragile plains in single file.
Makgadikgadi is technically not a single pan but many pans with sandy desert in between, but it is all counted in the area estimate. The largest individual pan is about , and it is seasonally covered with water. Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, by comparison, on the other hand is a single salt flat of and rarely has much water and is also claimed to be the world's largest salt pan.
The San people resided in this area and were thought to have had grazing livestock when water was more plentiful earlier in the Holocene. Modern commercial operations to extract salt and soda ash began in 1991.
The main water source is the Nata River, called Amanzanyama in Zimbabwe where it rises at Sandown about from Bulawayo. Kubu Island, a rock island, is within the Makgadikgadi Pan.
Makgadikgadi Pans National Park is a National Park in Botswana.
First crossing by car
The Makgadikgadi was first crossed in a car by the presenters of British TV show Top Gear - Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, as part of a challenge to cross Botswana in second-hand two wheel drive cars, not made for off-road, bought for under £1500. (Clarkson had previously crossed the Makgadikgadi using a quad bike.)
All three cars made it through the Makgadikgadi, although Clarkson and May had to reduce the weight of the cars (a Lancia Beta and Mercedes-Benz 230E respectively), as heavy vehicles tend to sink through the salty surface into the mud below, by removing seats, doors, windows and other bodywork - but were still too heavy and frequently broke through the crust of the salt pan, bogging down. Hammond's unmodified 1963 Opel Kadett skittered across the surface, never losing traction. A Volkswagen Beetle was also driven unmodified across the salt flats, as a backup car in case one of the other 3 cars would break down.
It gets very hot in these pans during the summer seasons where temperature reach up to 44°C.
See also
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