Mapping of dome structures in the Central Zone of the Damara Orogen, Namibia, has shown that there is a profound ductile shear zone, named the Khan River Detachment, separating the ~2 to ~1 Ga granitic basement gneiss domes from the ~550 Ma metamorphosed Damaran sedimentary cover. Kinematic indicators show that the hanging wall of the detachment has moved towards the SW and is extensional. Different levels of the Damaran stratigraphy have been brought down into tectonic contact with the basement. There is no repetition by thrusting. The domes are thought to be the result of combined crustal NW-SE compression and SW-NE extension when the cover became detached from the basement and escaped and flowed towards the SW following collision of the Kalahari and Congo Cratons. The apparent coincidence of 1) a regionally extensive detachment zone that can be extrapolated from dome to dome for over 9000 km² ; 2) consistent kinematic indicators for SW directed extensional detachment of the Damaran cover from its basement; and 3) syn-detachment granite magmatism: suggests that the geology can be explained by a deeper mid-crustal version of the North American metamorphic core complex model.