Messum in the photo is the formation toward the bottom left with Bradberg, the highest mountain in Namibia, some 30km away. During
about 1850 a British merchant ship under Captain William Messum visited
Cape Cross. Captain Messum was in search of commercial opportunities
along the
Namib coast and spent a few weeks exploring the hinterland, probably up
to the Brandberg area. He humbly named the dry river course and the
mountains after himself.
During the years just before their
epic escape into the Namib during WWII, the German geologists Dr Henno
Martin and Dr Hermann Korn (“The Sheltering Desert” – “Wenn es Krieg
gibt, gehn wir in die Wüste”) spent some time investigating the “Messum
Igneous complex in SWA” situated to the south of the Messum river, west
of the Brandberg massif. They first recognized the crater structure
(1936/7) and coined the name ‘Messum Crater’. It was not actually named
by Captain Messum. It is also very unlikely that Captain Messum himself
was ever inside the crater. However it has since come to light that
Messum is in fact not a crator, it is a colapesed volcano that had much
to do with the seperation of Africa and South America from the former
super continent.
Want to see Messum Crator?
Road Trip Namibia, your one stop shop to all of Namibia, Itiniraries, reservations, permits, rentals.
Road Trip Namibia, your one stop shop to all of Namibia, Itiniraries, reservations, permits, rentals.
Photo by: Google Earth
