Human habi­ta­tion of this elon­gat­ed sand dune penin­su­la, 98 km long and 0.4–4 km wide, dates back to pre­his­toric times. Through­out this peri­od it has been threat­ened by the nat­ur­al forces of wind and waves. Its sur­vival to the present day has been made pos­si­ble only as a result of cease­less human efforts to com­bat the ero­sion of the Spit, dra­mat­i­cal­ly illus­trat­ed by con­tin­u­ing sta­bil­i­sa­tion and refor­esta­tion projects.