Mariental

Mariental is a city of 10,000 inhabitants in south-central Namibia, lying on the B1 national road north of Keetmanshoop and southeast of Windhoek. It lies at an elevation of. Mariental is connected to the TransNamib railway line from Windhoek to Keetmanshoop. The town and the surrounding area are in a hot, arid region.Mariental is the administrative capital of the Hardap Region in an area which has long been a centre for the Nama people. It lies near the Hardap Dam, the largest reservoir in Namibia.HistoryNamed by local Rhenish missionaries, the town was founded in 1912 as a railway stop between Windhoek and Keetmanshoop and named after Maria, the wife of the first colonial settler of the area, Hermann Brandt. It was proclaimed a town in 1920 and a municipality in 1946. Mariental is home to a large number of Nama-speaking people, descendants of the early Khoi inhabitants of Namibia. The people of Mariental are known for their big smiles and hospitality.GeographyHardap damThe Hardap Dam, situated northwest of Mariental, is the largest dam in Namibia. It supplies the city with water and controls the flow of the Fish River which flows in a southerly direction past the town. Hardap Dam has a capacity of 320e6m3 and a surface area of 25km2. Construction began in 1960 and completed in 1963.Before the dam was built, Mariental was flooded in 1923 and 1934. However, whenever dam sluices have to be opened fully due to good rains in the Fish River's catchment area, Mariental is still prone to floods, with reed grasses growing in the riverbed of Fish slowing down the flow of water and aggravating the danger.