Mababe depression lies in the southern part of Chobe National Park, Botswana’s first national park, and also the most biologically diverse. A depression is a low area surrounded by higher land and usually characerised by interior drainage, once a large lake, with the inland delta of the Savuti, the Savuti Marsh. This gigantic depression, with a surface that is sometimes bare and sometimes covered with thorny bushes, is evidence of an ancient inland lake. It is assumed that the Savute area was once part of the giant Makgadikgadi Lake. When it began to dry up 30,000 years ago, it left behind a gigantic body of water, Lake Mababe, which eventually disappeared. The basin is now completely dry, except for the Khwai river that drains into the southern edge of the depression and becomes an important source of water during the peak of the dry season, when herds of 1000 to 2000 buffaloes gather – along with hundreds of elephants and giraffes. Due to the large herds of buffalo the area also hosts good concentrations of lions and hyenas, occasional cheetah might be spotted as they are known to travel between Mababe and Savuti to the north.