Windhoek travel guide

Namibia · Top sights · trending spots

Windhoek is a small highland capital with Lutheran churches and a brewery, left by the Germans, and it exists for most visitors as the place where the hire car is collected.

The Namib south of it is the oldest desert on earth. At Sossusvlei the dunes run to more than three hundred metres and turn orange at dawn, and at Deadvlei camelthorn trees that died nine centuries ago still stand on white clay.

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Top 10 sights in Windhoek

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

© Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
Christ Church, Windhoek
A Lutheran church consecrated in 1910, built in neo-Romanesque with art nouveau detail from local quartz sandstone. It was raised as a peace church after the colonial wars against the Herero and Nama, a description its critics contest.
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© Alexander Johmann · CC BY-SA 2.0
Alte Feste
The German garrison fort of 1890, and the oldest surviving building in Windhoek — the colonial capital effectively began with it. It houses the historical wing of the national museum, and the equestrian statue of the Schutztruppe was moved into its courtyard in 2013.
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© aj82 · CC BY-SA 2.0
St. Mary's Cathedral, Windhoek
The seat of the Catholic archdiocese of Windhoek, built between 1906 and 1908 from local materials in a brick Romanesque Revival manner. Three semicircular arches front the porch, and twin square towers rise in four stages to white-painted spires.
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Reiterdenkmal, Windhoek
An equestrian monument unveiled in 1912 to the German soldiers who died putting down the Herero and Nama, and silent on the tens of thousands of Africans killed. It was moved in 2009 and taken off public display in 2013.
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© Sigismund von Dobschütz · CC BY-SA 3.0
Schwerinsburg
The largest of the three so-called castles that the architect Wilhelm Sander built above Windhoek before the First World War, later bought by a Count von Schwerin. It is now the residence of the Italian ambassador and cannot be visited.
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© Olga Ernst & Hp.Baumeler · CC BY-SA 4.0
Heroes' Acre
The national war memorial, opened in 2002 in the hills ten kilometres south of the city and built by North Korea's Mansudae studio, like several Namibian monuments. A marble obelisk of thirty-four metres stands over a bronze Unknown Soldier who looks a good deal like Sam Nujoma.
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© IUM 240052021 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Independence Memorial Museum
A museum of the liberation struggle opened in 2014 in a gold-glass tower, also designed and built by the North Korean Mansudae company. The statue of Sam Nujoma outside it stands where the German colonial rider used to be.
Tiqets Klook
© Pgallert · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sanderburg
The smallest of Windhoek's three castles, built by Wilhelm Sander between 1917 and 1919 as his own house, with battlements and a round tower borrowed from medieval Germany. It is in private hands and seen only from the street.
Tiqets Klook
© Sigismund von Dobschütz · CC BY-SA 3.0
Heinitzburg
A castle of 1914 by Wilhelm Sander, sold two years later to Count von Schwerin, who named it after his wife's maiden name. It is now a small hotel, which makes it the only one of the three you can go inside.
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© Damien du Toit (coda) · CC BY 2.0
Parliament Gardens
A small formal garden of 1932 between the Tintenpalast, Namibia's parliament, and the Christuskirche, with jacarandas and bauhinias. It took its present name at independence in 1990 and is where the city eats its lunch.
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Popular tickets & tours in Windhoek

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Trending now

Based on 2025 Wikipedia pageviews — popular places beyond the top 10.

© IUM 240052021 · CC BY-SA 4.0
National Museum of Namibia
The national museum, split between the Alte Feste for history and the Owela site for natural history and ethnography. The Owela displays on the desert-adapted peoples of the Kalahari and Kunene are the substantial part of it.
Tiqets Klook
© Lonelyplanet · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Trans-Namib Railroad Museum
A railway museum opened in 1993 on the upper floor of the 1912 station building, with locomotives, surveying instruments and maps of the line the Germans drove inland from Swakopmund. The station itself is the better exhibit.
Tiqets Klook

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Top 10 sights in Windhoek

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

Christ Church, Windhoek

A Lutheran church consecrated in 1910, built in neo-Romanesque with art nouveau detail from local quartz sandstone. It was raised as a peace church after the colonial wars against the Herero and Nama, a description its critics contest.

Tiqets

Klook

Alte Feste

The German garrison fort of 1890, and the oldest surviving building in Windhoek — the colonial capital effectively began with it. It houses the historical wing of the national museum, and the equestrian statue of the Schutztruppe was moved into its courtyard in 2013.

Tiqets

Klook

St. Mary's Cathedral, Windhoek

The seat of the Catholic archdiocese of Windhoek, built between 1906 and 1908 from local materials in a brick Romanesque Revival manner. Three semicircular arches front the porch, and twin square towers rise in four stages to white-painted spires.

Tiqets

Klook

Reiterdenkmal, Windhoek

An equestrian monument unveiled in 1912 to the German soldiers who died putting down the Herero and Nama, and silent on the tens of thousands of Africans killed. It was moved in 2009 and taken off public display in 2013.

Tiqets

Klook

Schwerinsburg

The largest of the three so-called castles that the architect Wilhelm Sander built above Windhoek before the First World War, later bought by a Count von Schwerin. It is now the residence of the Italian ambassador and cannot be visited.

Tiqets

Klook

Heroes' Acre

The national war memorial, opened in 2002 in the hills ten kilometres south of the city and built by North Korea's Mansudae studio, like several Namibian monuments. A marble obelisk of thirty-four metres stands over a bronze Unknown Soldier who looks a good deal like Sam Nujoma.

Tiqets

Klook

Independence Memorial Museum

A museum of the liberation struggle opened in 2014 in a gold-glass tower, also designed and built by the North Korean Mansudae company. The statue of Sam Nujoma outside it stands where the German colonial rider used to be.

Tiqets

Klook

Sanderburg

The smallest of Windhoek's three castles, built by Wilhelm Sander between 1917 and 1919 as his own house, with battlements and a round tower borrowed from medieval Germany. It is in private hands and seen only from the street.

Tiqets

Klook

Heinitzburg

A castle of 1914 by Wilhelm Sander, sold two years later to Count von Schwerin, who named it after his wife's maiden name. It is now a small hotel, which makes it the only one of the three you can go inside.

Tiqets

Klook

Parliament Gardens

A small formal garden of 1932 between the Tintenpalast, Namibia's parliament, and the Christuskirche, with jacarandas and bauhinias. It took its present name at independence in 1990 and is where the city eats its lunch.

Tiqets

Klook

Trending now

Based on 2025 Wikipedia pageviews — popular places beyond the top 10.

National Museum of Namibia

The national museum, split between the Alte Feste for history and the Owela site for natural history and ethnography. The Owela displays on the desert-adapted peoples of the Kalahari and Kunene are the substantial part of it.

Tiqets

Klook

Trans-Namib Railroad Museum

A railway museum opened in 1993 on the upper floor of the 1912 station building, with locomotives, surveying instruments and maps of the line the Germans drove inland from Swakopmund. The station itself is the better exhibit.

Tiqets

Klook