 The name "Sossusvlei" is of mixed origin and roughly means "dead-end marsh".Vlei is the Afrikaans word for "marsh", while "sossus" is Nama for "no return" or "dead end".Sossusvlei owes this name to the fact that it is an endorheic drainage basin (i.e., a drainage basin without outflows) for the ephemeral Tsauchab River.