Maun is the second-largest village in Botswana. As of 2022, it had a population of 85,293. Maun is the "tourism capital" of Botswana and the administrative centre of Ngamiland district. Francistown and Maun are linked by the A3 highway. Maun is also the headquarters of numerous safari and air-charter operations who run trips into the Okavango Delta.
Although officially still a village, Maun has developed rapidly from a rural frontier town and has spread along the Thamalakane River. It now has shopping centres, hotels and lodges as well as car hire services, although it retains a rural atmosphere and local tribesmen continue to bring their cattle to Maun to sell. The community is distributed along the wide banks of the Thamalakane where red lechwe can still be seen grazing next to local donkeys, goats and cattle.
History
The settlement was founded in 1915 as the tribal capital of the Batawana people, and has had a reputation as a hard-living 'Wild West' town which was the economic center of local cattle ranching and hunting operations. However, with the growth of the tourism industry and the completion of the tar road from Nata in the early 1990s, Maun has developed swiftly, losing much of its old town character. It is now home to over 55,000 people.
In 1993, Conservation International opened an office in Maun as part of its CI-Okavango programme, which later formed the basis of the Botswana country programme Conservation International Botswana.
Maun is today a thriving tourist town, infamous for its infestation of donkeys and to a lesser extent goats. These animals can be seen standing around town as the local farmers arrive in the innumerable taxis to sell their wares on the curbside.
With the influx of tourism dollars, the typical traditional rondavels have been replaced by square, cinderblock homes roofed with tin and occasionally tiles. Mobile phone service in Maun is excellent out to about , depending on weather.
Maun is also becoming a regional transshipment hub for materials and tradespeople who service both the local camps and safari centres and the burgeoning mineral exploration camps in northwestern Botswana. There are a wide variety of services in stores as well as many local entrepreneurs with welding ventures operated from the back of a cart.
Tourists often fly into the Maun International Airport. Often, these tourists hire fully equipped 4x4 cars for camping and game viewing in the parks, or otherwise fly to several tourist camps in the Okavango Delta or the Makgadikgadi.
Climate
Maun has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh). On 7 January 2016, Maun recorded a temperature of , which is the highest temperature to have ever been recorded in Botswana.