Namib Desert
Zebra pan after a good rainy season;
Sossusvlei environs (Sossusvlei area) - Namibia
Photograph: Johan Steyn
This is postmarked in 2008 with a Namibia 'Ediacaran fossil' stamp.
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Sossusvlei is a salt and clay pan (dry lake) surrounded by high red dunes, located in the southern part of the Namib Desert.
The name "Sossusvlei" is of mixed origin, and roughly means "dead end marsh". Sossusvlei owes this name to the fact that it is an endorheic drainage basin (i.e., a drainage basin without outflows) for the ephemeral Tsauchab River.
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Namib Desert, Namibia
From Earthsong by Bernhard Edmaier
This is postmarked from Canada with three Canadian handcraft stamps and one gorgeous 'The Flood Gate by Homer Watson' stamp in 2007.
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The Namib Desert is a desert in Namibia which forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park one of Africa's largest. The desert occupies an area of around 50 000 km², stretching some 1,000 miles (1,600 km) along the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia, which is named after this desert. Its east-west width varies from 30 to 100 miles (50-160 km). The Namib Desert also reaches into southwest Angola.
The area is considered to be the oldest desert in the world, having endured arid or semi-arid conditions for at least 80 million years.