The Kalahari Desert is a large, arid to semi-arid sandy area in southern Africa that covers about 500,000 km². The Kalahari has vast areas covered by red-brown sands and no permanent surface water.
However, the Kalahari is not a true desert. Parts of the Kalahari receive over 250 mm of erratic rainfall annually and are quite well vegetated; it is only truly arid in the south-west (under 175 mm of rain annually) making the Kalahari a fossil desert. Summer temperatures in the Kalahari range from 20 to 40 °C. The average low winter temperature can be below 0 °C.
The Kalahari has a number of game reserves.