Windhoek Things to Do

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On 27 January 1912 the government of the German Colony of South-West Africa inaugurated the "Equestrian", a statue in Windhoek. This is the largest and best known Kolonialdenkmal, or colonial statue in Namibia. A plaque (pictured) commemorates the brave German soldiers, serving the Kaiser, fought during the wars with the Herero and Hottentottenaufstandes 1903 to 1907 and during the Kalahari expedition in 1908. It lists the statistics of Germans who died from wounds and diseases: Protection Force: Officers 100, NCOs 254, Riders 1180; from the Navy: 7 officers, NCOs 13, teams, 72, killed in uprisings: 119 men, women 4, Children 1.


Prior to Independence this monument was both a rallying point and a symbol of hatred depending which side you were on. In the years since independence there have been discussions about changing the plaque as some consider it insensitive to the plight of indigenous peoples during Colonial times. So far, it remains in its original position unaltered, a historical symbol of past times.

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Die Christuskirche or Christ Church was founded in April 1896 by the Rev. William Anz. It was finally inaugurated in 1910 as a memorial to the peace accords achieved with the Hottentots, Ovambo and Herero peoples. The outside walls are made from quartz sandstone as is the 24 metre high tower. It has an impressive marble alter and the stain glass windows in the sanctuary were donated by Kaiser Wilhelm II.

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The Post Street Mall is a pedestrianized shopping area right in the heart of Windhoek. It contains large retail outlets, a very good Tourist Information Bureau, meteorites on display and up to 82 souvenir traders (pictured). If the traders here don’t sell it – no one does. They have every conceivable souvenir you can think of. The Tourist Information off in the Mall has free maps of Windhoek and can even arrange accommodation outside of the town centre. Unfortunately they are only open M-F.

In Post Mall Street, you can see meteorites from the Gibeon meteorite shower (more than 21 tonnes crashed on earth in Gibeon, southern Namibia). They have one on display that was cut in half and it just solid silver.

Windhoek offers quite a variety of architectural styles, but it is mainly colonial so you can see German-style houses and churches, half-timbered houses and Sam's monstrous modern presidential buildings. It is said that this building is already costing more than $8,000,000 and it is build by the Chinese in exchange for the mineral rights of Namibia. Makes you wonder how so much money can be spend on one building when the country is poverty stricken.

Windhoek offers quite a variety of architectural styles, but it is mainly colonial so you can see German-style houses and churches, half-timbered houses and Sam's monstrous modern presedential buildings.

Our first stop was the colonial parliament building was built by Gottlieb Redecker. It was used as the German colonial government headquarters. It has a beautiful garden in the front with statues of important Namibian citizens.

Located at a plaza of the middle of Post street, this sculpture has the world´s largest collection of meteorites in the world. The meteorites get their name form the area wich they were found in Mariental, and they supposed to belong to the world´s largest meteor shower wich took place 600 million years ago. They are made from solid iron and smaller amounts of other metals. By the way, when i visited the place one of the meteorites was mising.