The Pavilhão Welwitschia Mirabilis is a state-owned multisports indoor arena located in

Moçâmedes Moçâmedes is a List of cities and towns in Angola, city in southwestern Angola, and the capital of Namibe Province. The city's current population is 255,000 (2014 census). Founded in 1840 by the Portuguese Angola, Portuguese colonial administr ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. The 3072-seat arena, features hardwood flooring, electronic scoreboard and a wide range of features that makes it one of the most modern of its kind in Africa. was built to host the 2013 World Roller Hockey World Championship alongside the

Pavilhão Multiusos de Luanda The Helmarc Arena, also called Arena do Quilamba (Quilamba Arena), is a state-owned multi-purpose indoor arena used mostly for basketball in Belas, Angola. The arena has a seating capacity of 12,720, and features hardwood flooring, an electronic ...

. It is fit for such sports as

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

Handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

and

Roller Hockey Roller hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using wheeled skates. It can be played with traditional roller skates (quad skates) or with inline skates and use either a ball or puck. Combined, roller hockey is played in nearly 60 cou ...

. The arena was named after

Welwitschia ''Welwitschia'' is a monotypic genus of gnetophytes containing only the species ''Welwitschia mirabilis''. It is named after the Austrian botanist Friedrich Welwitsch, who documented the plant in the 1850s. In common use, it is sometimes ref ...

, a plant

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Namib desert The Namib ( ; ) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba Ri ...

with such a huge life span that some believe to be as long as 2000 years.

References

Indoor arenas in Angola 2013 establishments in Angola Sports venues completed in 2013 Basketball venues in Angola Volleyball venues in Angola Handball venues in Angola {{Angola-sports-venue-stub