The Etosha Pan is the heart of the entire park — a vast, flat expanse of white and pale green salt covering roughly 5,000 square kilometres, clearly visible from space. For most of the year it is bone dry, its surface cracked and shimmering with heat, supporting almost no life. In wet years, brief rains flood the pan to a few centimetres depth, and within days flamingos and pelicans arrive in enormous numbers to feed on the algae that blooms in the brine.
Driving along the southern edge of the pan is one of the strangest experiences in Etosha. The road follows the pan's rim for many kilometres, with the white void opening up to the north and mopane woodland dropping away to the south. Animals stand at the edge in silhouette. The light on the pan changes minute by minute, turning the surface from white to silver to pale gold in the late afternoon.