The Makgadikgadi Pans is the world’s largest salt pan landscape. It covers an area of over 30,000 km² and is technically not a single pan, but consists of many pans – the largest of which are Sua, Nwetwe and Nxai pans. The Makgadikgadi Pans were once part of the old Makgadikgadi lake bed – an ancient lake that is believed to have covered as much as 80,000 km², and started drying up almost 10,000 years ago, leaving huge salt-encrusted pans behind.
If you visit the pans in the dry season, when the landscape is arid and the land is as dry as a bone, you might not believe that it hosts Africa’s longest zebra migration. During the wet season (around January to March) the pans transform into lush, nutritious wetlands, which attract zebras, wildebeests, elephants and other herbivores. If you want to witness this spectacle, the Makgadikgadi Pans are the best place to be.
