The history of the Fish River Canyon begins roughly 1800 million years ago when sandstones, shales and lava were deposited along what are now the slopes of the canyon. Between 1300 and 1000 million years ago extreme heat caused these deposits to become folded and changed into gneiss and granites. About 800 million years ago dolerite dykes intruded into these rocks and these are now visible inside the canyon.

Between 750 and 650 million years ago, the surface of these rocks was eroded to form the floor of a shallow sea which washed over southern Namibia.  The two final pieces in the jigsaw took place about 500 million years ago when tectonic movement caused a series of fractures which lead to the formation of the Fish River Canyon.  This early version of the canyon was deepened by the retreat southwards of glaciers during the Gondwana Ice Age some 300 million years ago.

However this was not the end of the process. Within the main canyon a second canyon was created by further movements of the earth’s crust as it cooled. This second canyon became the water-course which is now the Fish River. The Fish River is the longest river in Namibia.

In 1962 the canyon was proclaimed a national monument .

AI-AIS

Ai-Ais is a Khoekhoen name which is translated as “Fire-Water”(that is, hot as fire or scalding hot).  It is certain that the spring was known for thousands of years to the Stone Age people who lived in the area, as well as the pastoralists who settled much later, before it was ‘discovered’ in 1850 by a Nama shepherd searching for stray stock.  The spring was visited by farmers of the area and during the Nama War of 1903 –7 it was used as a base camp by the German forces. When the South African forces under General Louis Botha invaded South West Africa in 1915 German soldiers allegedly sought refuge here to recover from their wounds.