Skeleton Coast National Park

About Skeleton Coast National Park

The Skeleton Coast is one of Earth's most hauntingly beautiful landscapes — a fog-shrouded strip of desert coastline littered with shipwrecks, whale bones, and the skeletal remains of ill-fated vessels. The Bushmen called it "The Land God Made in Anger" and Portuguese sailors named it "The Gates of Hell." This 500 km stretch of wild Atlantic coast is where the cold Benguela Current meets the scorching Namib Desert, creating perpetual fog banks that have claimed hundreds of ships over centuries. Yet this seemingly barren wasteland supports remarkable desert-adapted wildlife: elephants, lions, and brown hyenas that have evolved to survive in one of the harshest environments on Earth.