The iron mass
A dark rippled surface.
Pavel Špindler — CC BY 3.0 · Olga Ernst — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sergio Conti from Montevecchia (LC), Italia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Pavel Špindler — CC BY 3.0 · Eugen Zibiso — CC BY 2.0
The Hoba Meteorite is the largest known intact meteorite on Earth and the most massive naturally occurring piece of iron on its surface. It lies where it fell on a farm near Grootfontein, never moved because of its enormous weight. It makes a short but curious visit, simply to stand before something that fell from space. Its mass is estimated at more than 60 tonnes, about twice that of the largest fragments of other meteorites. It is thought to have landed less than 80,000 years ago, with the atmosphere slowing it so much that it left no crater. The landowner found it in 1920 while ploughing with an ox, when he heard a metallic scratch and the plough stopped. «Hoba» means «gift» in Khoekhoegowab. You go down circular stone steps like a small theatre, built after the site was donated to the government in 1987, to a flat dark mass with a rippled iron surface in the middle. It shows black and rusty brown colours and old cut marks. Savannah trees surround the site, and the mass looks fine at sunset. It is about 19 km in a straight line from Grootfontein on a gravel road, and a small visitor centre on site takes the fee. One blogger gives hours of about 9:00 to 16:00, so check before you go. Half an hour is enough. Do not try to chip anything off, as it is a protected monument.
A dark rippled surface.
Round steps around it.
Low light on the iron.
Hoba West farm, near Grootfontein, Otjozondjupa Region
It weighs more than 60 tonnes, so it stayed where it fell.
The atmosphere is thought to have slowed it greatly, so no crater was preserved.