Nxai Pan
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| photo_caption = Botswana Nxai Pan
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Nxai Pan is a large salt pan topographic depressionW. Olivier, 1998 which is part of the larger Makgadikgadi Pans in northeastern Botswana. It lies on the old Pandamatenga Trail, which until the 1960s was used for overland cattle drives. The area is speckled with umbrella acacias and is said to resemble the Serengeti in Tanzania.{{cite book|author1=Matthew D. Firestone|author2=Adam Karlin|title=Botswana & Namibia|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781741049220|url-access=registration|year=2010|publisher=Lonely Planet|isbn=978-1-74104-922-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781741049220/page/109 109]}} The Nxai Pan was added to the National Park System to augment the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, thus providing an enlarged contiguous area of natural protection.C.M.Hogan, 2008
The 'x' represents a palatal click sound. Click sounds are typical of the Khoisan languages and some southern Bantu languages.{{Cite web|url=https://www.exploring-africa.com/en/botswana/nxai-pan-national-park/nxai-pan-national-park|title=The Nxai Pan National Park|date=16 September 2017}}
Wildlife
This landform is a major part of the Nxai Pan National Park, and is a seasonal home to large herds of zebra and wildebeest. In the rainy season between December and April the pan becomes grassy and attracts these animals in their tens of thousands, along with smaller numbers of gemsbok, eland and red hartebeest.{{cite book|author=Chris McIntyre|title=Botswana Safari Guide: Okavango Delta, Chobe, Northern Kalahari|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x3ElAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA404|date=1 April 2014|publisher=Bradt Travel Guides|isbn=978-1-84162-489-1|page=399}}
See also
References
- Willie Olivier and Sandra Olivier (1998) Overland Through Southern Africa, Published by Struik, 176 pages {{ISBN|1-86872-105-1}}, {{ISBN|978-1-86872-105-4}}
- C.Michael Hogan (2008) Makgadikgadi, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=22373&mode=&order=0]
=Notes=
{{reflist}}
{{commonscat|Nxai Pan National Park|position=left}}
{{National Parks of Botswana}}
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