The
Moçâmedes Desert is a
desert located in the deep southwest of
Angola, near the border with
Namibia. The desert forms the northern tip of the
Namib Desert. From the
Atlantic Ocean in the west, the desert gradually rises to a semiarid plain where African ironwood trees grow. Few people live in the desert; communities are found mainly in small fishing towns on the coast. The unique
tumboa (Welwitschia mirabilis), a desert plant with a short, wide trunk and two gigantic leaves that can survive for a century, is endemic to the desert.