The Okavango Delta emanates in the highlands of Angola, where the mighty Okavango River begins as just a trickle before gradually becoming the third largest river in southern Africa that flows for over 1,600km to reach inland Botswana.
Around 60,000 years ago, the river deposited its water into Lake Makgadikgadi, a paleolake believed to have covered over 100,000km² of Botswana’s interior.
The river water had nowhere to go and poured relentlessly into the Kalahari Desert, creating the endorheic basin of the Okavango Delta – one of the largest inland deltas in the world.