| Etosha Pan | |
|---|---|
 Looking across the savannah to the hot, dry, salt-encrusted Etosha Pan | |
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| Location | Namibia |
| Coordinates | 18°47′07″S 16°15′50″E / 18.78528°S 16.26389°E |
| Official name | Etosha Pan, Lake Oponono & Cuvelai drainage |
| Designated | August 23, 1995 |
The Etosha Pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin in the north of Namibia. It is a vast hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated. The 120-kilometre-long (75-mile-long) dry lakebed and its surroundings are protected as Etosha National Park, Namibia's second-largest wildlife park, covering 22,270 square kilometres (8,600 sq mi). The pan is mostly dry but after heavy rains it is flooded with a thin layer of water, which is heavily salted by the mineral deposits on the surface.