Welcome to the first annual GSS Desert Week! In time-honoured tradition, we’ll mostly be posting about deserts. For about a week! The Namib Desert in Namibia and Angola forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, and covers an area of…

A star fort or trace italienne is a type of military fortification first introduced in Italy around the mid-fifteenth century. Traditional medieval castles, towers and ring forts had proved extremely vulnerable to increasingly mobile cannons, and star forts were introduced…

I wonder what kind of animal left these tracks on these salt flats in South Africa? Are there any animal trackers out there who can identify the creatures responsible? Part of the National Geographic African Megaflyover Project, this particular image…

Here in the city of Djenné, Mali stands the Great Mosque of Djenné, which is the largest mud brick building in the world. The first mosque was built on this site in the 13th century, but was later demolished, so…

This small rocky outcrop off the coast of South Africa is Seal Island, which is named for the thousands of Cape Fur Seals that occupy it, and famous for the unique marine drama that unfolds here. At various times of…

Scientists working with Kew gardens have today announced their discovery of a massive “self-destructing palm tree” in Madagascar. The tree has a bizarre unusual reproductive cycle, whereby after around 50 years of growth, the process of flowering actually kills the…