Thanks to its tactical position on the Atlantic coast, with access to one of the finest deep water harbors this side of the Cape of Good Hope, Walvis Bay has been a plaything for the historic superpowers in the African theater of war.
The Portuguese passed this way, then the Brits, then came the Germans in the First World War, each raising evermore elaborate dock structures and depots.
Now, with the colonial conflicts long in the past, the city is one of the top tourist draws in all of Namibia.
It’s got kitesurfing along its beaches, oodles of fishing opportunities, tour organizers touting excursions to the bird-rich islands out at sea, and sand boarding on the dunes of the Namib Desert.