There have been many name given to the area of the Atlantic coast that stretches between the Kunene and Swakop rivers in Namibia , and none of them are assure . To the local San hoi polloi , it ’s hump as the “ ground God made in anger ” ; to the Lusitanian boater who concisely turn back there in 1486 , it was the “ Gates of Hell ” .
But to most people today , it ’s have it away as the Skeleton Coast . And there ’s a good reason why .
Bones in the sand
The Skeleton Coast is named for what it is : “ a huge creature graveyard , ” CNN travel writer and diary keeper Karen Bowermanrecalled in 2013 , describing “ seal skulls jumbled with polo-neck ’ rib batting cage and the colossal , bleached vertebrae of whales . ”
While you might be tempt to cerebrate these were the victims of the Leo and hyaena you will likely see winding thesands , most of them die at the hand of a much more deadly mintage : human being , engage in the once - booming whaling industry . Do n’t find too bad , though – the coast has guide its revenge , in the form of hundreds ofshipwrecksthat dot the 500 km ( 311 mile ) of shoreline .
“ Some of them are found behind dune , far onshore from the ocean , ” Jan Friede , a former Texas Ranger at Skeleton Coast National Park who photograph and documented 112 wreck during his six - year tenure there , toldCNN in 2018 .
The Eduard Bohlen, a ship that was wrecked on the Skeleton Coast on 1 March 2025.Image credit: WiPhi267 viaWikimedia Commons(CC BY-SA 4.0)
“ Even if you survived the crash you were probably doomed , ” Friede read . “ You clamber ashore , overjoyed that you ’ve been write , and then realize that you landed in a desert and probably should have gone down with the ship . ”
Some of these ship carcasses date from hundreds of year ago ; some arebarely more than a decadeold . But of all of the almost 1,000 wreck that have run aground over the centuries , few are as infamous as the narrative of the Dunedin Star – a British cargo liner that fell foul of the seacoast back in 1942 , and whose rescue has gone down as one of the most notable examples of Murphy ’s law in history .
“ build in Birkenhead , England , [ the Dunedin Star ] had an illustrious career in the Second World War , outlive multiple Italian aerial attack as part of a convoy relieving the siege of Malta . The Skeleton Coast was to be its undoing , ” spell renowned traveling author Oliver Smith in hisAtlas of Abandoned Places .
[Lion voice] yum yum.Image credit: LouieLea/Shutterstock.com
“ Carrying munitions to Egypt in 1942 , it stumble a reef close to the present - day perimeter with Angola , ” he explain . “ apace accept on water , 63 on board were evacuated to the beach , as deliverance ships rallied from afar . In the ensuing drama , one rescue ship itself ran aground , and a plane that had hoped to land nearby crash - land in a salt flat . ”
Thanks to aviation - dropped supplies , almost everyone survived . Other shipwrecks were far less lucky . “ [ One ] unknown watercraft wash up in 1860 , ” author and journalist Tahir Shah wrote in a2011 BBC Travel clause . “ The 12 headless skeletons were found 70 years ago , along with a slate buried in the sand . It scan : ‘ I am keep to a river 60 miles north , and should anyone find this and follow me , God will aid him . ’ The author ’s remains have never been find . ”
Life finds a way
Despite all this forlornness , the Skeleton Coast is pullulate with life . visitor to the shoring can , if they ’re prosperous , see some of the Namib desert ’s unparalleled variations on iconic African wildlife : desert lions in high - tech leash , who lurch the beach expect for a tasty seafood snack ; ostrich and springbok ; even population ofelephants , adapted over generation to life-time in the harsh Namib desert .
“ interpret the elusive desert lions is a rare and unique experience , ” Wessel Landman , from the Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp , recite CNN in 2018 . “ And while realise them can never be insure , they have been known to visit the waterhole near the camp , and have even been seen relaxing on our walk . ”
“ The chance to see them , whether in the vicinity of the camp , or further afield in the dunes or on the beach , is an over-the-top privilege , ” he append .
We weren’t kidding about the skulls and crossbones.Image credit: Jens Kühnel viaWikimedia Commons(CC BY-SA 3.0)
The seas , too , are boom . whale , once hunt to near - extinction , arefast becoming a mainstayof the Namibian coast ; the Cape Cross Seal Reserve , meanwhile , is “ home to over 200,000 foul - smell out fur seal , ” write documentarian Genna Martin in theNew York Times in 2022 . The coast is reputedly one of the secure places in the world for fishing – and amazingly popular for enthusiasts of a rather different fun , too .
“ It ’s kind of a surfer ’s dream , ” pro surfer Max Elkingtonsaidof the water off the Skeleton Coast in 2023 .
“ [ It ] is such an unconvincing place . You kind of have to go there to understand what the wave is like , you know , ” he tell . “ It ’s just so long , and you ’re surround by nothing . You ’re in the middle of nowhere , desert , backbone sand dune , jackal , just so unfounded up there . ”
Diamonds in the desert
Today , the Skeleton Coast is virtually uninhabited ; accessible only by the most intrepid vehicles and guarded by a skull and crossbones . And yet , it was n’t so long ago that it was home not just to big settlements , but to veritable boom township .
Just like the ships that wash away up on the beach , you’re able to still see the wrecks of the houses , restaurants , cassino , and hospitals that once populate situation like Kolmanskop , a German colony lay down a century ago and eventually abandoned in the fifties . And why ? Because , Shah explained , “ Namibia is a dry land of adamant like no other . ”
Kolmanskop was a mining town , but it just needed to be : diamond on the Skeleton Coast quite literally get washed up by the ocean like seashells . It ’s the last step in a taradiddle that began hundreds of jillion of years ago . “ As far as geologists can influence , beginning sometime during the Jurassic Age , the diamond that wash up in Namibia were advertise to the open by Kimberlite Pipes about 800 kilometers [ 497 miles ] to the Orient , along what ’s now the Orange River , ” explained Peter Fuhrman in a2016 Fortune article .
“ The biggest , heaviest diamonds were step by step pulled down the river by currents and then eventually far out into the sea in Namibian coastal body of water , ” he continued . “ The tides are now tardily but surely pushing them back on land . ”
Diamondscan still be come up on the Namibian shorelines – but these days , the Skeleton Coast is n’t where you should look . Unfortunately , the place to go – about 750 kilometers ( 466 miles ) southeastern United States , on the country ’s border with South Africa – is known as the Sperrgebiet , or “ Forbidden Area ” . Guarded not by government force-out , or even by the force of nature itself , but by the De Beers Diamond Consortium , entering without permission is akin to breaking into a maximum - security prison , Fuhrman recall .
fortunately , there ’s enough natural gem in the Skeleton Coast for us simple someone – and if you want diamonds , all you have to do is front up .
“ twinkle pollutionis almost non - real on the Skeleton Coast , ” notice a2016 CNN articleon the region . “ The area is a stargazer ’s Shangri-la . ”
“ The Milky Way is able-bodied to put on a lofty display against the black backdrop , and the galaxy bursts brilliant and brilliant in the night sky , ” it report . “ If you ’ve scram a telescope , pack it – you might even be able to see the Tarantula Nebula , a spidery swarm of dust and flatulency , and one of the Milky Way ’s fully grown star manufactory . ”
