The skeleton coast is located in Africa, between the Namib Desert and the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 500 km long and covered with white sand. Seen from the air, it looks magnificent. It is furrowed by millions of sand dunes, between which desert plates in the shape of spikes emerge.
These slabs can move up to 15 m during the year. This coast is the most dangerous coast in the world. Due to dangerous currents, winds and sharp reefs, many ships ran aground on it, so that the bones of whales, sunken sailors and the wreckage of stranded ships lie along the entire coast. It just got its name from the bones that cover it.
A cold Benguel current flows on the coast, bringing a thick fog of the ocean (the Angolans call it "cassimbo"). Winds blow from the land to the sea, rain rarely falls and the amount of precipitation does not exceed 10 millimeters per year while the climate is inhospitable.
The Bushmen call this area "Earth created by God when he was angry", while the Portuguese sailors called it "the door to hell". Namib - one of the driest deserts in the world.
"Skeleton Coast" is located hundreds of kilometers away from settlements and sources of drinking water. The remains of sunken ships can be seen not only in the water, but also on the shore. The northern part of the skeleton of the coast is a protected area of the National Nature Park "Skeleton Coast".
The wrecks of passenger ships, tugs, gunboats, galleys, huts and fast sailing ships lie scattered along the entire Skeleton Coast.
Twelve decapitated skeletons, lying on the shore together with a children's skeleton next to an abandoned hut, were found in 1943. A message was written on a nearby rock: "I continue towards the river 100 km north of here, and if anyone finds this and follows me, God will help them." This message was written in 1860. To this day, it has not been revealed who the tragic victims were. , how their shipwreck occurred and why they were found beheaded.
