It is a little difficult to imagine that these sandy buildings and this desert, abandoned by the people, were inhabited by one of the richest people in the world hundreds of years ago. In 1908, a railway worker found a shining stone on the ground at this place, called Kolmanskop, in memory of Coleman, who had abandoned his bullock cart during a sandstorm, and showed it to his German master. He realized that it was not an ordinary stone and in the ensuing search he found many more such stones. When the Germans learned from him that it was precious diamonds and that the whole place was full of diamonds, they came in droves and began to dig them out, and soon the German government turned it into a no-go zone and began trying to acquire all the diamonds.
Image Credit: Google
Ghost Town; Kolmanskop, the World's Richest City, Mined 1000 KG of Diamonds Over a Hundred Years Ago
Huge quantities of diamonds were obtained from Kolmanskop. At first, diamonds could be picked up by hand from here by hand. In 1912, one million carats of diamonds were obtained from here. This would have been about 12 per cent of the world's diamond production at the time. By 1914, more than 1000 kg of diamonds had been recovered from here. The maximum number of people who were there was only 1300. At the height of their wealth, they built a village similar to that of Germany. They built houses, hospital, power plant, dance hall, theatre, casino, bars, post office, school and an ice factory, as well as the first X-ray station in the southern hemisphere.
Giant excavators were brought in and excavated. By the 1930s, diamonds were almost exhausted. Meanwhile, with the discovery of new diamond collections 270 km south of Namibia, all of them left home and moved there. By 1956, the last family had left the place. In 1980, the mining company De Beers created a museum at Kolmanskop to preserve its history.
People can visit this place today with prior permission. Sand-encrusted buildings and the ruins of a once-rich city are the favourite subjects of the photographers, who visited the place. Today, on this east-facing slope, we can see a number of buildings filled with sand-covered rooms. The sun begins to shine in the morning, in a cloudless atmosphere, is the best time to take a photo. In the evenings after a quiet morning, there may be unpredictable sandstorms. Arriving in the morning after a nice breeze in the evening, you can see the beautiful paintings made on the wind sand inside and around the buildings, without any of the visitors' footsteps of the previous day.
Many movies have been shot here. The Colemans Coop is still a ghost town in the Namibian desert
, embracing visitors and embracing the lost glory of yesteryear.
