Here, near the settlement of Sesriem, westerly winds from the Naukluft Mountains to the east collide with the Atlantic winds, stopping the dunes' advance.
The shifting dunes and flat pans around Sossusvlei, more than 700 km south of the Skeleton Coast, lie in the Namib-Naukluft Park, beyond the park entrance at Sesriem.
But in recent decades their habitat has been reclassified as part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, Africa's largest game reserve, bringing them into greater contact with humans.