The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean’s coast of Namibia. The coast is normally associated with famous shipwrecks, and stories abound of sailors walking for hundreds of kilometers through this barren Namibian landscape in search of food and water. The name came from the bones that lined the beaches from whaling operations and seal hunts, but more than a few of the skeletons were said to be human. 
 
The Eduard Bohlen was a German cargo ship that ran aground on September 5, 1909 on its way to Table Bay from Swakopmund. It is believed that thick fog caused the ship to founder close to Conception Bay. Years after the ship ran aground the desert began to encroach on the ocean and the ship that was once stranded in the ocean slowly became stranded in the desert. The wreck currently sits about 500 meters from the ocean.
 
The coast is littered with scores of shipwrecks, some are barely recognizable. The only way out was by going through a marsh hundreds of miles long and only accessible through a hot and inhospitable desert. The Bushmen of the Namibian interior called the region "The Land God Made in Anger", while Portuguese sailors once referred to it as "The Gates of Hell".