We all know cathedrals made of bricks and stone but have you heard of the one made of…well…wind? The answer to that question is the Wind Cathedral of Namibia. Paul Godard turned the world’s attention to the beauty of the Namibian desert back in 2005 through his controversial photograph(shown above) of its sand dunes. It still remains a topic of debate as to whether the snapshot was genuine or was it adulterated by Photoshop. Nonetheless the effect that he created was sensational. People got curious and wanted to witness the Wind Cathedral for themselves. The place in question is Sossusvlei, which literally means “dead end marsh”. Despite its name it still manages to be one of the topmost tourist attractions of the country. You can find it at the southern part of the oldest desert in the world-the Namib desert, in the Namib Naukluft National Park. The place happens to be a photographer’s paradise. The characteristic feature is the presence of sand dunes exhibiting a myriad range of colours from pink to orange. These dunes are not only vividly coloured but also monstrously high akin to miniaturised version of mountains, many of them being 200 meters tall. The highest one of them all is aptly named as the “Big Daddy”, standing at a height of 380 meters. These dunes have been formed over a period of a million years. They are believed to be 60-80 million years old and were formed by the Atlantic Ocean drifts that pushed the sands for eons. The sand dunes display a dynamic behaviour as in they constantly keep changing their contours and shapes due to the shifting of the wind. As a result we have:
Wind Cathedral Namibia
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