African Food and Art

This blog explores the wisdom of African proverbs, the depth of folklore, the beauty of art, the stories of history, and the flavors of timeless African food recipes.

Desert Dragon’s Breath Cave

Dragon’s Breath Cave beneath the Kalahari Desert of Namibia


Dragon Breath Cave is aptly named because of the humid air that rises from its 200 feet shaft opening. Cave diving Dragons breath is only open for professional and well-resourced cavers.

Dragon Breath Cave is located near the mining town of Tsumeb Namibia.

Dragon’s Breath Cave is the largest underground lake in the world and is located in the Southern African country of Namibia. Dragon Breath Cave is located near the mining town of Tsumeb Namibia. 

Dragon Breath Cave is actually a sinkhole with rocky, vertical sides beneath the Kalahari Desert. Dragon Breath Cave is located near the mining town of Tsumeb Namibia. 

Beneath the Kalahari Desert of Namibia lays the world’s largest lake not formed by a glacier. Namibia is the 2nd least populated country in the world and is not generally associated with cave diving. 

The truth is, the Kalahari is not a true desert as it receives too much rain, but it is actually a fossil desert. The Kalahari Desert stretches across seven African countries of Angola, Botswana a Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. The Namibian section of the Kalahari Desert is covered with trees and seasonal waterways due to regular rainfall. 
 
Cave diving Dragons breath is only open for professional and well-resourced cavers since in order to dive permission is required from the property owners, access is difficult at times using remote operating vehicles (ROV) or climbing, ropes, narrow tunnels and ledges followed by a drop from the roof of a vast cavern in order to finally reach the water. 

Once there, cave diving inside Dragons Breath is like diving down into a deep pitch-black abyss submerging in another world. 
 
Dragon Breath Cave is actually a sinkhole with rocky, vertical sides beneath the Kalahari Desert. The waters of the cave, where no light penetrates its surface the rare cavefish, the golden catfish living in the isolated underground lake of Dragon's Breath Cave is very much at home. 

Like most cavefish, the golden catfish has small eyes, poor hearing, and very little color appearing almost white having adapted to the extreme darkness. 

Dragon's Breath Cave discovery was made in 1986 by a group of scientists. Dragon Breath Cave is aptly named because of the humid air that rises from its 200 feet shaft opening.

Dragon Breath Cave is 2 hectares or 5-acre size laying in pitch blackness.

The depth of the cave is unknown but is estimated as having 40 million cubic feet of fossil water which is a space of 631 feet; nearly 2 ½ football fields can fit comfortably inside the cave.  

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