Trifter

In 1908 out in the Namib Desert a few miles from the southern Namibian port town of Luderitz, a railway worker was walking the train tracks keeping them clear of the ever blowing desert sand when he picked up what he thought was a stone. The stone turned out to be a diamond and the boom town of Kolmanskop was born.

Image via Wikipedia

Reportedly diamonds were so plentiful in the area they could simply be plucked right off the ground. The area was soon flooded with diamond seekers hoping to make a quick fortune. The boom town of Kolmanskop sprang from nothing and in a short period of time had a hospital, casino, theater, school, ballroom, power station and even a skittle alley.

Source (Kolmanskop skittle alleys)

Diamonds were easy to find at first and from 1911 to 1914 some 5 million karats (2,200 lbs) of diamonds were found. Kolmanskop boomed to handle the demand. But as time went went by the diamonds were harder to find and in 1926 a new diamond field was discovered further south near Oranjemund.

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Kolmanskop saw a rapid and steady decline of people and became totally abandoned in 1956 and became a ghost town.

Source (Last one out turned off this old light switch)

Source (Once the people left even the rats could not survive)

Today, Kolmanskop is a popular tourist attraction run by the Namibia-De Beers company and daily guided tours leave from Luderitz every morning.

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The ghost town has also been used as a film set. Scenes from the 1993 movie Dust Devil and the entire 2000 movie The King is Alive were filmed at Kolmanskop.

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Visitors to Kolmanskop can see a well preserved ghost town where some restoration has taken place.

Image via Wikipedia

But most of the town has been overrun by the unrelenting desert wind and sands which have not really destroyed the place, just filled it up.

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To learn more about the Namib Desert area which has the largest sand dunes in the world please see Namib Desert: A Hauntingly Beautiful Place. You can see the largest canyon in Africa and second largest canyon in the world here Fish River Canyon. And see great animals of Namibia at Magnificent Animals of Etosha National Park.