The Fairy Tale Forest (Afrikaans: ''sprokieswoud'') is a section of

Etosha National Park Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia and one of the largest national parks in Africa. It was proclaimed a game reserve in March 1907 in Ordinance 88 by the Governor of German South West Africa, Friedrich von Lindequist. ...

Kunene Region Kunene is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital is Opuwo, its governor is Marius Sheya. The region's name comes from the Kunene River which forms the northern border with Angola. Besides the capital Opuwo, the region contains the ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, near Grünewald Farm. It is an open forest of ''

Moringa ovalifolia ''Moringa ovalifolia'' is a succulent flowering tree of the family Moringaceae native to Namibia and southwestern Angola. It is a succulent-stemmed tree found in desert and semi-desert areas. The plant grows vertically, and can reach in heigh ...

'' ("Fairy tale trees"). The largest concentration of ''Moringa ovalifolia'' in the world, the forest is 2 km x 2 km in size and is located on a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

plain covered with sweetgrass. The park's trees have often been damaged by

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

herds in the past, but are now protected from them.

References

Etosha National Park {{Namibia-geo-stub