The Fish River (Visrivier in Afrikaans, Fischfluss in German) is a river in Namibia. It is 650 km long, flowing from Hardap Dam near Mariental. The flow of the river is seasonal; in winter the river can dry up completely. Despite this, the river is the site of the spectacular Fish River Canyon, a canyon 160 km long, and at points as much as 550 m deep.
The outflow of the Fish River joins the Orange River at the border with South Africa about 100 km from the Atlantic Ocean.
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Fish River crossing
Coordinates: 28°08′S 17°11′E / 28.133°S 17.183°E / -28.133; 17.183
Famous quotes containing the words fish and/or river:
“Slow, slow, as a fish she came,
Slow as a fish coming forward,
Swaying in a long wave;
Her skirts not touching a leaf,
Her white arms reaching towards me.”
—Theodore Roethke (1908–1963)
“Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)