Maun: the gateway to the Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta, the only major river delta in the world that does not flow into a sea, floods seasonally creating an oasis of channels and islets in the Kalahari Desert.

A few minutes by plane, the safari camps of the delta offer sightings of elephants, lions and African wild dogs in one of Africa's densest wildlife ecosystems.

Continuing by mokoro, the traditional dugout canoe, you traverse narrow channels between papyri, a silent experience unique to the delta.

Toward evening, the delta's tented camps offer stargazing in one of the world's skies least polluted by artificial light.

The Okavango Delta, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, remains the world's only major delta system that does not flow into an ocean, dispersing instead into the sands of the Kalahari Desert.

The water level in the delta reaches its peak during Botswana's dry season—a counterintuitive phenomenon caused by the long journey time of rainwater that fell months earlier on the Angolan highlands.