Travel Guide Usakos

This small town also had its heyday thanks to the railway. Usakos, whose name means "seized by the heel", was the capital of the railways until 1960. Today, it has lost some of its prestige and is content to display an old locomotive (the N 40) built in Germany in 1912 in front of its station. There is also a church dating from 1905 and a memorial dedicated to the fighters of the Second World War. To the north of Usakos and Karibib is a mountain range of volcanic origin: the Erongo Mountains. After the last eruptions of about 150 million years ago, the collapsed volcano was filled with igneous material which formed a granite core streaked with crystallized stones. The erosion gave birth to the Erongo Mountains, known for their original shapes, their numerous caves and the rock paintings discovered on their granite walls (including the White Elephant, dating from the first millennium, accessible on the territory of the Ameib farm). These massive, round granite boulders are somewhat reminiscent of the famous Matopos Hills in south-western Zimbabwe. The famous Spitzkoppe rock formations are also close to Usakos and can be a day trip.