- Where
- North-eastern Botswana, in the Kalahari Basin
- Coordinates
- 20.7000° S, 25.5000° E
- Biome
- Saline pan complex and surrounding grassland savanna
- The pans
- Sua (Sowa) and Ntwetwe are the two largest; figures for the complex range from about 12,000 to 16,000 km²
- The migration
- Zebra and wildebeest, roughly December–April
- Status
- Makgadikgadi Pans and Nxai Pan National Parks; Kubu Island is a national monument
- Best visited
- May–October for the dry white pans; December–April for water, birds and the migration
Lay down on a floor of salt at night with nothing above me and nothing around me and discovered that silence has a texture. In the morning there was still nothing, in every direction, until a line of animals came over the horizon walking somewhere with great purpose. I have thought about where they were going ever since.
The short answer
The Makgadikgadi is a complex of salt pans in north-eastern Botswana, on the floor of a prehistoric lake that once covered a large part of the Kalahari Basin. Its two largest pans, Sua and Ntwetwe, are among the biggest salt flats on Earth; published figures for the whole complex range from roughly 12,000 to 16,000 square kilometres. In the dry season the pans are a blinding, near-featureless white crust. When the rains arrive, roughly December to April, they hold shallow water, drawing flamingos and pelicans, and the surrounding grasslands green enough to pull in tens of thousands of zebra and wildebeest. Kubu Island, a granite outcrop in Sua Pan studded with baobabs, is a national monument and a sacred site.
Why it's worth knowing
Most great landscapes are made by something arriving. This one was made by something leaving.
Lake Makgadikgadi was fed by rivers running off the highlands to the north and west. Those rivers shifted — tectonic movement in the Kalahari Basin redirected them, and the water that had filled an inland sea went elsewhere. The Okavango, a few hundred kilometres away, is one of the rivers that no longer arrives here; it now spreads out and disappears into the sand instead. Two of Africa's strangest landscapes are the same story told from opposite ends.
What's left is the lake bed, and the lake bed is the point. Its flatness is not ordinary flatness — there is nothing to give the eye scale, no tree, no rise, no edge, so distance stops behaving. Visitors consistently describe the experience less as looking at something than as looking at the absence of anything, and the most sought-after activity is to sleep on the crust with no tent.
And then there is the part that connects the two. Every wet season, zebra and wildebeest move onto the grasslands at the pans' edges — one of the longest land mammal migrations on the continent, and one that was only mapped properly in recent decades. They are following water and grass across the floor of a lake that stopped existing before anyone alive had a word for it.
The field notes
When the lake left, and how much of it there was
The figures are large and the sources do not agree on them.
Size. The complex is routinely described as among the largest salt-pan systems on Earth and as visible from orbit. The safari operator &Beyond gives over 16,000 km²; other accounts give figures around 12,000. The variance depends on whether one counts only the two great pans — Sua and Ntwetwe — or the scatter of smaller pans, grassland and fossil dune around them.
Age. This is the sharper disagreement. &Beyond states the lake evaporated more than 2,000 years ago; the tour operator Charlie's Travels gives around 10,000 years. That is a fivefold difference, and it likely reflects the fact that the lake did not dry once but fluctuated over a long period, filling and shrinking as the rivers wandered. No single date is asserted here, and any account that gives one with confidence is worth reading carefully.
Superlatives. Care is needed. The Makgadikgadi is frequently called the largest salt pan in the world, but it is a complex of pans rather than a single flat, which is a different claim from the one usually made about Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni. The honest formulation — among the largest salt-pan complexes on Earth — is less punchy and holds up.
The migration, and the superlative problem
Zebra and wildebeest arrive in tens of thousands with the rains. Beyond that, the claims fan out.
African Overland Tours, citing the Global Initiative on Ungulate Migration, reports that zebra travelling to the Makgadikgadi from the Chobe River in the north cover up to about 250 km, and describes this as Africa's longest known mammal migration. That is a specific, sourced, checkable claim.
Other accounts are looser. One operator calls it the second-biggest zebra migration in the world; another calls it the longest animal migration in the world, which is straightforwardly wrong — several seabirds and whales migrate by an order of magnitude further. The route was also not well documented until relatively recently, which is part of why it is sometimes called the "secret" migration.
What is not in dispute: it happens, it is large, it is seasonal, and it is one of the last great overland movements of animals left in southern Africa.
An island in a sea that isn't there
Kubu Island — Lekhubu in the local name — is a granite outcrop roughly a kilometre long, rising from the flat of Sua Pan and crowned with baobabs growing straight out of white rock. Its Setswana name is generally given as relating to the hippopotamus, an animal that could plausibly have been here when there was water and certainly cannot be now.
It is a national monument, and it is sacred to the Indigenous people of the region. Stone walling and Stone Age artefacts are present. Visitors are expected to behave accordingly, and access is generally arranged with guides.
Elsewhere on the pans, Baines' Baobabs — a cluster of seven trees on a sandy island within Kudiakam Pan, inside Nxai Pan National Park — were painted by the English artist and explorer Thomas Baines in 1862. Comparing the painting with the trees is one of the more startling exercises in slow time available to a traveller: they have barely changed.
- Sleep on the pan. No tent. This is the whole thing and everything else is a supporting act.
- Stand still and turn a full circle, slowly, and notice that nothing changes.
- Go to Lekhubu and be quiet there, because other people's sacred places are not scenery.
- Find Baines' trees and hold the painting up beside them.
- Come back in the other season and refuse to believe it is the same place.
The crust itself, lifted at the edge of a tyre track. The pan surface is a thin salt plate over grey mud; break a piece and it comes away like a shard of dinner plate, chalky on top and damp underneath. It is the floor of a lake, and it snaps.
Tally, in the marginI put it back. It seemed rude to keep part of the floor.
Getting there
The Makgadikgadi is in north-eastern Botswana, and most visitors arrive via Maun to the west — the same gateway as the Okavango Delta, with flights from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Gaborone — or via the town of Nata to the north-east, which sits on the tarred road between Francistown and Kasane.
Camps sit on the pan edges and on the grassland fringes, and most guests fly in on a light aircraft transfer or arrive on a guided road transfer. Self-driving is possible but this is proper 4×4 country: some routes onto and around the pans need a vehicle, a guide, or both, and the salt crust is treacherous after rain, when a surface that looks solid is not.
Season decides what you get, more so than almost anywhere. May to October is the dry season: white, empty, silent, and the time for quad biking, sleep-outs and meerkats. December to April is the green season: water on the pans, flamingos and pelicans, and the zebra and wildebeest on the grasslands. Nxai Pan is at its best in the wet months and quiet in the dry.
Practical notes. There is no shade on the pans and the glare is severe — sunglasses and cover are not optional. Distances between fuel stops are long. The area is remote enough that self-drivers should carry water, recovery gear and a means of communication, and the crust should never be driven on wet.
Mark this place
Common questions
What are the Makgadikgadi Pans?
The Makgadikgadi is a complex of salt pans in north-eastern Botswana, on the bed of a prehistoric lake that once covered a large part of the Kalahari Basin. Sua (Sowa) and Ntwetwe are the two largest pans. Published figures for the complex range from roughly 12,000 to 16,000 square kilometres, depending on what is counted.
When did Lake Makgadikgadi dry up?
Sources differ substantially. Some accounts give around 10,000 years ago; others state the lake evaporated more than 2,000 years ago. The likely reason for the spread is that the lake did not dry once but fluctuated over a long period as the rivers feeding it shifted course. No single date is well established in popular sources.
Are the Makgadikgadi Pans the largest salt flat in the world?
They are frequently described that way, but the claim needs care. The Makgadikgadi is a complex of pans rather than a single continuous salt flat, which is a different measurement from the one usually applied to Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni. It is safest to say the Makgadikgadi is among the largest salt-pan complexes on Earth.
When is the zebra migration at the Makgadikgadi Pans?
Zebra and wildebeest move onto the grasslands around the pans during and after the rains, roughly December to April. African Overland Tours, citing the Global Initiative on Ungulate Migration, reports that animals travelling from the Chobe River cover up to about 250 km and describes this as Africa's longest known mammal migration. Broader claims that it is the longest animal migration in the world are not correct.
What is Kubu Island?
Kubu Island, known locally as Lekhubu, is a granite outcrop about a kilometre long rising from Sua Pan, covered with ancient baobabs and containing stone walling and Stone Age artefacts. It is a national monument and a sacred site for the Indigenous people of the region, and is normally visited with a guide.
What are Baines' Baobabs?
Baines' Baobabs are a group of seven baobab trees on a sandy island within Kudiakam Pan, inside Nxai Pan National Park. They were painted by the English artist and explorer Thomas Baines in 1862, and the trees are still recognisable from his painting.
What is the best time to visit the Makgadikgadi Pans?
It depends entirely on what you want. May to October gives the dry season pans — white, empty and walkable, with quad biking, sleep-outs and meerkats. December to April brings water, flamingos and pelicans, and the zebra and wildebeest migration on the surrounding grasslands. The two experiences barely resemble one another.
Can you drive on the Makgadikgadi salt pans?
In parts, and only in the dry season with an appropriate vehicle. Some routes require a 4×4, a guide, or both. After rain the crust becomes treacherous — a surface that looks solid can give way — and vehicles do get stuck a long way from help.