Grootfontein

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Grootfontein, Namibia

Area	xxx km² (xxx mi²)
Established	1885
Population	12,800
Population Density	xxx/km² (xxx/mi²)
Administrative Division	Otjozondjupa
Mayor	Rapama Kamehozu
Time Zone	South African Standard Time: UTC+1
Latitude and Longitude	Latitude: 19.56°S	Longitude: 18.09°E

Grootfontein is a city in north eastern Namibia. It lies on the B8, a Namibian National Road that leads from Windhoek to the Caprivi Strip, in the Otavi triangle. In Afrikaans, its name means "Big Spring" - there is indeed a large hot spring near the town.

In 1885, 40 Boer families from the north-west of South Africa settled at Grootfontein. Part of the Dorstland Trekkers, they were heading towards Angola. When that territory fell under Portuguese control, they turned back and established the "Republic Upingtonia" at Grootfontein. Abandoned by 1887, it became the headquarters of the German South West Africa Company in 1893.

Like all the towns in the Otavi triangle, Grootfontein is very green in summer but drier in winter. In spring, jacaranda trees bloom in profusion. The town has an old German Schutztruppe fortress from the year 1896, which today houses a museum that expounds on the local history. The economic mainspring of the area was for many decades the Berg Aukas mine to the north east of the town. This produced zinc and vanadium but has since closed. This is dolomite country and the carbonate deposits in the upper parts of the mine have yielded interesting fossils of simian or pongoid creatures that lived millions of years before modern humans evolved.

Twenty four kilometres west of Grootfontein lies the huge Hoba meteorite. It is easily the largest known meteorite on Earth, as well as being the largest single mass of iron known to exist on or near the surface of the planet.