Brandberg and nearby Messum belong to several Cretaceous intrusive complexes which - together with the volcanic events that created the Etendeka Plateau and Goboboseb Mountains - heralded the break-up of the Gondwana Supercontintent and the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean some 130 million years ago. The near circular topographic features are easily recognisable from the air and on satellite images, but while the silica-poor gabbros of the Messum Complex are deeply weathered, Brandberg is an impressive granite massif, soaring more than 2000 m out of the surrounding Namib Plains; standing 2573 m above sea level its central peak, Königstein, is the highest elevation in Namibia. But apart from being an iconic landmark, Brandberg is also of considerable archaeological interest, with more than thousand rock paintings recorded from its widepsread network of gorges, of which the "White Lady" of the Tsisab Gorge is indisputably the most famous.