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The Republic of Namibia is situated in south-western Africa and covers an area of 824 293 km² between latitudes 17° and 20° 45' south and longitudes 11° 45' and 25° 25' east. It is bounded on the north by Angola and Zambia, on the east by Botswana and South Africa, on the south by South Africa, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean.

The main geographic regions are:

• The 80 to 140 km wide coastal Namib desert, bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and stretching from the Orange River in the south to the Cumene River in the north;
• Inland it is generally steeply bordered by the central plateau, which is the northern extension of the South African Plateau and the Great Escarpment, with rugged mountains up to 2 697 m, rocky outcrops and wide sandfilled valleys and plains;
• The Kalahari Desert basin with an average elevation between 1 000 and 1 500 m dominates northern and eastern Namibia;
• The eastern Caprivi spur reaches up to Zimbabwe over a distance of more than 450 km.

The central plateau drains to the south-west into seasonal floodplains that, however, have subflows reaching the ocean, providing the coastal towns with water throughout the year. Only the Cumene and Orange Rivers are perennial. To the east and north the plateau drains into three major evaporation basins of the Kalahari: the very saline Etosha Basin in the north, the Okavango Basin in northern Botswana and the Molopo Basin in the south-east. The Etosha Lake, however, receives its water mainly from the overflow of the Cumene River during the tray season through many creeks and small lakes.

In the dry season, evaporation causes extensive salt plains and very saline and unfertile soils. The prevailing wind is the hot continental south-east trade, which reaches a maximum in January. This wind transports large quantities of sand and forms extensive sand dunes. The cool Benguela current flowing northward from the Antarctic influences the temperature of the coastal belt, which averages only 15° C and causes fog and low clouds. Annual rainfall along the coast, however, is extremely low and irregular, 11 mm in Walvis Bay and 15 mm in Luderitz. The central plateau and the Kalahari Basin receive more rain, from 100 mm in the south to 363 mm in Windhoek and over 500 mm in the north (517 mm in Odangua and 524 mm in Taumeb, spread over more than 5 months from October to April). The Caprivi Strip in the extreme east is the most humid area with more than 700 mm. The highest temperatures are found in the east.

Soils are generally poor. There are shifting sand dunes south and north-west of Walvis Bay, very sandy soils in the rest of the coastal belt and the Kalahari Desert and stony calcareous or rocky soils on the central plateau. In the north the soils are generally slightly better developed with, in the south of the Etosha Basin, relatively fertile cambisols and vertisols. The higher precipitation of the north makes irrigated agriculture possible but it doesn't cover a large area as yet.

The climate is generally hot and dry. Average temperature extremes at Walvis Bay on the coast are 15° to 23° C in January during the summer and 8° to 21° C in July. What little rain occurs falls from February through May. In Windhoek, in the interior, average temperature extremes are 17° to 29° C in January and 6° to 20° C in July. The average annual rainfall in the Namib Desert along the coast is about 50 mm. Inland, annual rainfall increases from 150 mm in the south to about 560 mm in the north. Most precipitation occurs from October through April.

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.