Tag Archives: Namibia

The Great Farini, Lulu Farini, and the Lost City of the Kalahari

Courtesy: UK National Archives
Courtesy: UK National Archives

The Kalahari Desert extends for 900,000 square kilometres, across three countries: Botswana, South Africa and Namibia. Its name, which comes from the Tswana for “great thirst”, gives a taste of just how inhospitable it can be.

That’s entertainment

And yet in 1885, a former entertainer and impresario – the Great Farini – claimed not just to have become the first white man to cross the Kalahari on foot, but also to have discovered the remains of a lost civilisation. What is more, he had the photos to prove it! Continue reading The Great Farini, Lulu Farini, and the Lost City of the Kalahari