Its expanding population of 17,000 more than doubles as Namibians head for this coastal resort through the giant dunes of the Namib Desert.

"This planet is just a giant dune," complained one of the gaunt, sunburned refugees, who sat on a rock near the crashed experimental spaceship.

The Nowabad refugee camp, run by an Irish relief organization called Concern, is carved from what appears to be a giant dune from a lost world.

Fly down a giant dune on a sandboard.

They might not have giant dunes, but they would be functioning ecosystems.

She stared at it, suddenly pale, then up at the giant dunes that hemmed them in on every side.

Another black-cabbed machine on big wheels had rolled down the shining face of a giant dune to block their path.

Visitors see the giant dune after entering the one-acre dome, billed as the largest indoor desert exhibit in the world.

Hautbois topped the final giant dune before the cable.

He clambered up the side of a giant dune, pulling at the coarse grass to help himself climb, crawling over obstacles on his hands and knees.