In the vast expanse of the great salt flats of Makgadikgadi in the north of the Kalahari, lies an isolated granite outcrop, some 10 meters high and roughly a kilometer long, known as Kubu Island. It takes the shape of a crescent, and its slopes are littered with wave-rounded pebbles and fossil, providing startling evidence of the presence of water in the prehistoric lake that once covered this region. The almost white rocks of Kubu Island is crowned with gigantic baobab trees and mysterious ruins rises out of the ground, belonging to those who once called this place home.
Makgadikgadi pan is one of the largest salt flats in the world covering approximately 16,000 sq km. The pans are the dried out remains of a huge superlake which covered most of central Botswana several millions of years ago. Climate change, earthquakes and the diversion of rivers starved this lake of its water supply, causing it to shrink and disappear into flat depressions of grey clay and salt.
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