Q 01/05

What colour is the sand that covers vast areas of the Kalahari?

A) White

B) Red

C) Black

D) Grey

Answer · why

B) Red

Roughly 900,000 square kilometres of it spread across three countries with no permanent surface water.

Q 02/05

The name Kalahari comes from a Tswana word meaning what?

A) The red sand

B) The endless plain

C) The land of lions

D) The great thirst

Answer · why

D) The great thirst

The related word Kgalagadi means 'a waterless place', and the desert has huge areas of red sand with no permanent surface water.

Q 03/05

Roughly how large is the Kalahari Desert?

A) About 90,000 sq km

B) About 300,000 sq km

C) About 900,000 sq km

D) About 3 million sq km

Answer · why

C) About 900,000 sq km

The surrounding Kalahari Basin is far bigger still, at over 2.5 million square kilometres.

Q 04/05

The Kalahari's only permanent river ends not in the sea but in what?

A) A salt lake

B) An inland delta

C) An underground cavern

D) A hydroelectric dam

Answer · why

B) An inland delta

Its marshes in the north-west of the desert are rich in wildlife.

Q 05/05

Why is the Kalahari not strictly a desert even where rainfall is very low?

A) It receives daily fog from the coast

B) It lies below sea level

C) It has permanent snow in winter

D) Its ground cover of vegetation is too dense

Answer · why

D) Its ground cover of vegetation is too dense

Only the far south-west, around the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, is bare enough to count as true semi-desert.