Kolmanskop – Namibia’s Ghost Town

Kolmanskop is a ghost town in Namibia, inundated by rolling banks of sand, in the middle of a region known as “The forbidden zone”.

Within a timeline of 40 years, this town was created, flourished and was left deserted – perhaps diamonds are not forever?

This little town in the desert started out as a small railway station between Keetmanshoop and the coastal town of Luderitz. The story goes that a Namibian railway worker found the first diamond while clearing the railway tracks in 1908.

By 1912, a town had sprung up producing millions of carats a year – 12% of the world’s total.

The area transformed into a fully functional German town, a luxury town in a barren desert. It had a butcher, baker, post office, school, bowling alley and hospital – the first to receive an X-ray machine in the Southern Hemisphere – probably to control workers who might swallow the diamonds.

The town boomed until the 1920’s. All came to a rapid stand still after World War 1. Diamond prices dropped, the diamond fields were depleted and richer diamond deposits were found further south on the border of Namibia and South Africa.

Townspeople left, abandoning their homes and possessions and the desert claimed its territory back.

The last inhabitant left in 1956, leaving the town abandoned. Dunes burst through homes, windows and doors filling the spaces with smooth banks of sand.

In 1980, the De Beers mining company restored and transformed the town into a museum for the public.

The town remains a mythical place and a photographer’s dream and therefore very much a must see destination.