25.0300°S, 15.9500°E.
The Fairy Circles Namibia are a band of millions of nearly perfect circular bare patches, two to fifteen metres across, scattered through the arid grasslands at the eastern edge of the Namib Desert from the Northern Cape of South Africa to southern Angola, with the densest concentration on the gravel plains of the NamibRand and Marienfluss reserves. Each circle is rimmed by a distinct halo of taller-than-average Stipagrostis grass, and the circles repeat at remarkably regular spacing — a hexagonal close-packed pattern clearly visible from satellite imagery and used in the type-site classification. Two competing scientific explanations have dominated the recent peer-reviewed literature. Norbert Jürgens of the University of Hamburg (2013, 2015) argues for sand termite Psammotermes allocerus colonies clearing roots beneath each circle, with stored soil moisture as the colony's reservoir. Stephan Getzin of the University of Göttingen and colleagues (2016, 2022) argue for a Turing-style self-organising vegetation pattern driven by competition for scarce soil moisture, without termite involvement. Recent work suggests both mechanisms may operate at different scales.
The Himba people who herd these grasslands call the fairy circles the footprints of the gods.