Sign up for free

Newsletters

Once a month
get new photos
and expert tips.

Science and Space
Main Health and Human Body Earth Space Prehistoric World A-Z

Botswana Floodplain

Torrents of seasonal floodwaters turn this dry, grassy plain into a swirling oasis in Botswana's Okavango Delta. Every year, this inland delta system, among the largest on Earth, floods, turning a 10,000-square-mile (25,900-square-kilometer) swath at the edge of the Kalahari Desert into a soggy alluvial fan that hosts a mind-boggling diversity of animal life.

Photograph by Bobby Haas