Petrified Forest
The Petrified Forest is a remarkable geological site located about 42 km west of Khorixas in Namibia’s Kunene Region. It features an extraordinary collection of fossilized tree trunks—some over 280 million years old—that have turned to stone through a natural process called petrification. It is not a forest in the traditional sense, but rather a collection of large, ancient trees that were preserved underground and later exposed.
Discovery and Protection
The site was discovered in the 1940s by local farmers, A.J. and J.H. Oberholzer, who stumbled upon the stone logs while herding livestock. Due to its scientific importance, the Petrified Forest was declared a Namibian National Monument on 1 March 1950 to protect its rare and fragile features.
How the Trees Became Stone
The trees, likely from the extinct Cordaites genus, were transported by massive floods during the Permian period—around 280 million years ago. As they were quickly buried under mud and sand, organic decay was prevented, allowing a process called silicification to occur. Over millions of years, silica-rich water seeped into the logs, slowly replacing the wood cell-by-cell with quartz and other minerals. This preserved even the bark texture and growth rings, turning the trees into lifelike stone replicas.
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