🇳🇦 Namibia
Windhoek
Windhoek (population 431,000; the capital and largest city of Namibia since independence on March 21, 1990; at 1,728 m altitude in the Khomas Hochland plateau of central Namibia — the highest capital city in sub-Saharan Africa; the geographic centre of Namibia equidistant from the Atlantic coast (370 km west), the Namib Desert (260 km west), the Etosha National Park (450 km north) and the Kalahari Desert (200 km east)) is a city with the most unusual colonial architectural heritage in sub-Saharan Africa: the German Imperial colonial period (1884-1915) left Windhoek with a concentration of German Wilhelmine-era buildings (the Christuskirche (the German Evangelical Lutheran church, 1907 — the most photographed building in Windhoek; the Art Nouveau/Neo-Gothic hybrid with the copper-oxidised green dome visible from across the city), the Alte Feste (the Old Fortress, 1890 — the oldest surviving building in Windhoek; the German Imperial fort from which the colonial administration of German South West Africa was conducted), the Tintenpalast (the Ink Palace, 1913 — the German colonial administrative building that now houses the Namibian National Assembly)) and a complex historical memory defined by the Herero and Nama Genocide (1904-1908 — the first genocide of the 20th century: the systematic extermination of the Herero people (estimated 65,000-80,000 killed, approximately 80% of the total Herero population) and the Nama people (estimated 10,000 killed) by the German Imperial Army under Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha after the Herero uprising of January 1904; Germany officially recognised the genocide in May 2021 and agreed to a €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) development aid package to Namibia over 30 years). The contemporary Windhoek is the most economically active city in Namibia and the logistical hub for the entire country: the National Museum of Namibia, the Independence Memorial Museum (opened 2014) and the Namibian Craft Centre are the primary cultural institutions, and the safari industry (the Etosha National Park tours, the Sossusvlei dune tours, the Damaraland desert tours) is the economic engine of the Windhoek tourism sector.