Kolmanskop: tour this ghost town buried in sand - It's hard to picture it but this sand-engulfed ghost town in the middle of the Namib desert in Namibia was once of the wealthiest towns on Earth.

What is Kolmanskop and how did it lose the battle against nature?

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Unusual stone - In 1908, Zacharias Lewala, a railway worker helping build the line between Lüderitz and Aus, saw a particularly shiny stone in the sand.

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Mining town - He picked it up and showed it to his supervisor, August Stauch. It was, of course, a diamond.

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Diamonds - Stauch quickly applied for a prospector’s license and inspectors confirmed that he had found the first diamond in the region.

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German colony - Located 10 km inland from the port town of Lüderitz, Kolmanskop was located in what was then known as German South West Africa, now Namibia.

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Abundance - The area was so rich in diamonds that workers could just get down on their knees with jars and pick up the minerals.

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Town's name - The town is called Kolmanskop in Afrikaans and Kolmannskuppe in German, both of which can be translated as "Coleman's head."

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Coleman's head - The village was named after Johnny Coleman, an ox-cart rider who abandoned his cart nearby during a sandstorm.

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'Sperrgebiet' - Upon hearing about the discovery of diamonds, German officials took an interest in the area and the government declared the place a “Sperrgebiet,” or restricted area.

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Diamond rush - In no time at all, workers flocked to the area in the hopes of making a fortune. The town quickly flourished.

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Heyday - Inspired by German culture and architecture, the town was soon bustling with life, including butchers, bakers, an ice factory, a post office, bars, a bowling alley, a concert hall, and a hospital that boasted the first x-ray machine south of the equator.

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Mansions - The village even contained huge mansions that were built on the sand dunes for the senior mine officials.

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Water - Water supply is bound to be an issue in the desert. Usually, water had to be shipped from Cape Town to Lüderitz and then brought to Kolmanskop by mules.

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Population - Albeit rich, the village was small. At its peak, Kolmanskop was home to about 700 families.

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Mining companies - Throughout the first decade, small mining companies operated in the area.

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Production - By 1912, Kolmanskop was responsible for 12% of the world’s total diamond production. Between 1908 and the start of World War I in 1914, about one ton of diamonds had been extracted from the village's sands.

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CDM - After World War I, German entrepreneur Ernest Oppenheimer established the Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM) and absorbed the smaller companies.

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World War I - The war took a toll on production. The price of diamonds considerably dropped and families began to move out in search of greener pastures, so to speak.

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Larger diamonds - Additionally, rich diamond fields that proved to have larger specimens were discovered in Oranjemund, south of Kolmanskop.

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Decline - By the 1930s, the village was already experiencing considerable decline.

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Last villagers - Kolmanskop's last residents left in 1956 but operations had already stopped a few years earlier.

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Ghost town - Today, Kolmanskop is a ghost town—one of its main and remarkable features is how quickly it's being reclaimed by the desert.

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Sand-filled - Sand reaches the roofs in some of the derelict buildings. Imagine how hard it must have been to keep the houses dusted!

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Visiting - Tourists seeking to visit these houses can do so, but independent visitors are not allowed.

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Tour -

Visitors must join a guided tour because of its location within a restricted area. Tours usually leave in the morning and information is available in both English and German.

See also: 60 astonishing pictures of the Milky Way

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