For years I have wanted to visit this one place I just had to see for myself: The German ghosttown, abandoned and almost swallowed by the Namibian desert.
The place has a ghostly atmosphere. I went on a two hour guided tour with a group. Next morning I went again, all alone and before the groups arrived. Which made the place even more ghostly.....and so quiet. I almost expected to see people coming from a house or see the tram starting to move....I did meet another person on my way into a house filled with sand. He was on his way out. We both jumbed!
According to the guide on site, Kolmanskop was a diamond mining settelement founded in1908 when a German found diamonds in the desert. At that time Namibia was a German colony named German South-West Africa. Kolmanskop became rich very fast because diamonds were found in large numbers. It is said, that you could just sit on the sand and pick diamonds in the moonlight!
Today the buildings still left, shows what a comfortable life the inhabitants had: casino, bowling alley, theatre, school, hospital and even their own ice making factory. Also they had a tram, said to be the first in Africa. They had people sweeping the streets for sand....every day!
The hospital corridor, now filled with sand. As far as the guide knew, this hospital was the first in Africa to have an X-ray machine. Not only used for patients, but to check if workers had swallowed diamonds.
In 1920 there were 300 adult Germans living here and 800 local workers who were on contracts, working with the diamonds. Small, but rich community.
In the early1950s people started to move away. New and larger diamond areas were found further south. The miners and their families followed. They left Kolmanskop and many of their things behind. There are stil cans with food on shelves in one of the houses...
An amazing place to be wandering around early in the morning. Because people left it with everything still there, it gives that feeling of the people still there. Definitely worth to visit twice.
U.J
Kristiansand, Norway
All the photoes are mine, Ulla Jensen (flickr, Instagram and facebook) https://www.flickr.com/photos/154924655@N04/34498884903/in/photostream/