The Makgadikgadi Pan is a large salt pan

Salt pan (geology)

Natural salt pans are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts, and should not be confused with salt evaporation ponds.A salt pan is formed where water pools...

 in the middle of the dry savanna of northeastern Botswana

Botswana

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...

. It is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikgadi

Lake Makgadikgadi

Lake Makgadikgadi is an ancient lake that existed in what is now the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. It may have once covered as much as 80,000 km² and was 30 m deep...

, which once covered an area larger than Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, but dried up several thousand years ago.
Lying southeast of the Okavango Delta

Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta , in Botswana, is the world's largest inland delta. It is formed where the Okavango River empties onto a swamp in an endorheic basin in the Kalahari Desert, where most of the water is lost to evaporation and transpiration instead of draining into the sea...

 and surrounded by the Kalahari desert

Kalahari Desert

The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savannah in Southern Africa extending , covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari supports more animals and plants than a true desert...

, Makgadikgadi is technically not a single pan but many pans with sandy desert

Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

 in between, the largest being the Sua

Sua Pan

The Sua Pan or Sowa Pan is a large natural topographic depression within the Makgadikgadi region of Botswana. It is located near the village of Sowa, whose name means salt in the language of the San...

 (Sowa), Nwetwe

Nwetwe Pan

The Nwetwe Pan is a large salt pan within the Makgadikgadi region of Botswana. The Nwetwe is one of three large pans within the Makgadikgadi, the other two being Nxai Pan and Sua Pan. In the present day Nwetwe Pan is a seasonal lake with filling occurring in the rainy season. Nwetwe was first...

 and Nxai Pan

Nxai Pan

Nxai Pan is a large salt pan topographic depression which is part of the larger Makgadikgadi Pans in northeastern Botswana. This landform is a major part of the Nxai Pan National Park, and is a seasonal home to large herds of zebra...

s.