KALAHARI DESERT, a region of South Africa, lying mainly between 20° and 28° S. and 19° and 24° E., and covering fully 120,000 sq.m. The greater part of this territory forms the western portion of the (British) Bechuanaland protectorate, but it extends south into that part of Bechuanaland annexed to the Cape and west into German South-West Africa. The Orange river marks its southern limit ; westward it reaches to the foot of the Nama and Damara hills, eastward to the cultivable parts of Bechu analand, northward and north-westward to the valley of the Okavango and the bed of Lake Ngami. The Kalahari, part of the immense inner table-land of South Africa, has an average elevation of over 3,00o ft. with a general slope from east to west and a dip northward to Ngami. The surface soil is mainly red sand. On the eastern border long tongues of sand project into the veld, while the veld in places penetrates far into the desert. There are also, and especially along the river beds, extensive mud flats. After heavy rain these become pans or lakes. A tough, sun bleached grass, growing knee-high in tufts at spaces of about 15 in., covers the dunes and gives the general colour of the land scape. Considerable parts of the Kalahari, chiefly in the west and north, are however covered with dense scrub and there are occasional patches of forest. Next to the lack of water the chief
characteristics of the desert are the tuberous and herbaceous plants and the large numbers of big game found in it.
In the south the drainage is towards the Orange. The Molopo and the Kuruman, which in their upper course in eastern Bechu analand are perennial streams, lose their water by evaporation and percolation on their way westward through the Kalahari. The Molopo, a very imposing river on the map, is dry in its lower stretches. (See BECHUANALAND.) The Kalahari was first crossed to Lake Ngami by David Living stone, accompanied by William C. Oswell, in 1849. In 1878-1879 a party of Boers, with about three hundred wagons, trekked from the Transvaal across the Kalahari to Ngami and thence to the hinterland of Angola. Many of the party, men, women and chil dren, perished of thirst during the journey. Survivors stated that in all some 25o people and 9,000 cattle died.
See BECHUANALAND. Die Kalahari, by Dr. Siegfried Passarge (Berlin, 1904), is a valuable treatise on the geology, topography, hydrography, climate and flora of the desert, with maps and bibliography. The author spent two years (1896-98) in the Kalahari. See also Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, etc., by David Livingstone (1857) and the South African Year Book.