Africa: a mysterious continent where tropical rainforests, vast savannahs and hot deserts meet, and thousands of different animal species live in a diverse nature. As of this year, there are as many as 335 national parks in Africa, making their concentration on the black continent higher than anywhere else on Earth. We present to you 10 of them - the most beautiful, the most interesting and the most worthy of your visit.
1. Central Kalahari (Botswana)
It is an almost 53,000 square kilometer reserve in the Kalahari desert the second largest national park in the entire world. Vast lowland plains, salt flats and ancient riverbeds are home to wild animals such as lions, hyenas, warthogs, leopards and cheetahs, and the Kalahari is also home to tribes of bushman dwarf hunters.
2. Serengeti (Tanzania)
It is one of the most pristine ecosystems in the world known for an extraordinary natural spectacle: the great migration of thousands of wild animals, zebra and gazelle, followed by their predators, and unfolds every year between July and October.
3. Masai Mara (Kenya)
Even this relatively small national reserve in Kenya is famous for the same great migration as the Serengeti, as animals migrate from one park to another every year. Despite its small size, it is the animal diversity here is fascinating: it is home to 95 different species of mammals, amphibians and reptiles and more than 400 different species of birds.
4. Inaccessible Bwindi (Uganda)
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Inaccessible Bwindi has such a name for a reason: it can only be reached on foot. The entire national park is covered with virgin forest, in which it is more than half of the world's total population of mountain gorillas – which, unfortunately, is only 340 individuals.
5. Amboseli (Kenya)
One of the most popular African national parks is located on the border with Tanzania and is famous for two things: huge herds of elephants and a breathtaking view of the 5,985 meter high Mount Kilimanjaro.
6. Kruger (Republic of South Africa)
The almost 20,000 square meter national park is not only one of the largest in Africa, but also in the whole world. It is home to more species of large mammals than any other African national park, and of course it is one of them the big five: lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and buffaloes.
7. Ngorongoro (Tanzania)
It is located in the heart of Ngorongoro Park the largest crater of an extinct volcano in the world, on the slopes of which a large number of wild animals live, and around the crater, on the vast plains, he grazes his livestock the nomadic Maasai people. Ngorongoro is also the area where the kar was found 3.5 million year old human footprints and other earliest human remains.
8. Chobe (Botswana)
The peculiarity of this national park is that it is estimated that it is located in it more elephants than anywhere else in Africa: around 50,000. It is easiest to see them between April and October, because then they resort to rivers because of the drought.
9. Nechisar (Ethiopia)
Despite its small size, the national park, which is only 514 square kilometers in size, is extremely picturesque. It is located between Lake Čamo, whose waters are azure blue, and Lake Abaja, whose waters are reddish. The central plain looks white from a distance, which is why it is called Nečisar, which means white grass. The national park is known for its large number of birds, kingfishers, flamingos, pelicans and storks.
10. Etosha (Namibia)
Etosha National Park is home to hundreds of different species of animals, many of which are endangered (such as the black rhinoceros), and its specialty is salt flats of Etosha, after which the park also got its name, and which cover almost one quarter of the entire park.