Kolmanskop Ghost Town

(Guided tours in English and German, Mon-Sat 0930 and 1100, Sun and public holidays 1000, starting at Kolmanskop Museum. US$5, US$2.60 children 6-14, under 6 free. You can book ahead through Ghost Town Tours, T063-204031, http://www.ghosttowntours.com or if you are already in Lüderitz purchase tickets beforehand from Lüderitz Safaris & Tours, on Bismarck St. These tickets allow you to go on the tour, visit the museum and spend some time exploring the houses and dunes after the tour before Kolmanskop closes at 1300. There is no access in the afternoon unless you obtain a special photo permit for US$16, which includes the 0930 tour and allows access between sunrise and sunset for photography.)

The former diamond boom town of Kolmanskop, finally deserted in 1956, is now a ghost town and lies crumbling in the desert 15 km inland from Lüderitz (drive 10 km inland on the B4, turn right and then follow signs; it is clearly visible from the road), gradually being weathered by the wind and buried by the sand. It is a fascinating place to visit, offering as it does a glimpse into an exciting part of Namibia’s history.

In April 1908, Zacharias Lewala, a worker on the Lüderitz-Aus railway line, presented a shiny stone to his supervisor August Stauch, who was clever enough to obtain a prospecting licence before having it officially verified and thereby starting the diamond rush around the site of Kolmanskop. In the early days, in the nearby Itadel Valley, stones were so accessible that prospectors with no mining equipment would crawl on their hands and knees in full moonlight collecting the glittering stones.

In September 1908, the colonial government declared a Sperrgebiet or ‘forbidden zone’ extending 360 km northwards from the Orange River and 100 km inland from the coast in order to control the mining of the diamonds, and in February 1909, a central diamond market was established.

The First World War effectively stopped diamond production, by which time more than 5.4 million carats of very high-quality stones had been extracted from the region. The recession that followed the war hit the diamond industry badly. However, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the chairman of the Anglo-American Company, saw this as an opportunity to buy up all the small diamond companies operating in the Sperrgebiet, and combine them to form Consolidated Diamond Mines. CDM, as it became known, was to control all diamond mining in the area until entering into partnership with the Namibian government in 1995 under the new name of NAMDEB.

Kolmanskop enjoyed its heyday in the 1920s when it grew rapidly to service the diamond miners and eventually the families which followed. A hospital, gymnasium and concert hall, school, butchery, bakery and a number of fine houses were built in the middle of the desert, and at its peak there were as many as 300 German and 800 Oshiwambo adults living in the town. The hospital was ultra-modern and was equipped with the first X-ray machine in southern Africa (used principally for detecting secreted gemstones, rather than broken bones!).

The sheer wealth generated at Kolmanskop (peak production was over 30,000 carats per day) is demonstrated by the way in which water was supplied to the town. Every month a ship left Cape Town carrying 1000 tonnes of water, and each resident was supplied with 20 litres per day for free. Those requiring additional water paid for it, at half the price of beer. The lack of fresh water to power steam engines also forced the building of a power station which supplied electricity, very advanced technology at the time, to power the mining machinery.

However, the boom years in Kolmanskop ended in 1928 when diamond reserves six times the size of those at Kolmanskop (although of lesser quality) were discovered at the mouth of the Orange River. The town of Oranjemund was built in 1936 to exploit these reserves and in 1938 most of the workers and equipment relocated from Kolmanskop to this new headquarters. Following this, the town went into steady decline, although the last people (including the 100 full-time labourers employed to remove the encroaching sand) only left Kolmanskop in 1956, abandoning this once-flourishing town to time and the forces of nature.

Kolmanskop was rescued from the desert in 1979 following a CDM-commissioned report to assess the tourist potential of this ghost town. In 1980, simple restoration began and the town was opened to tourism. At present the most carefully preserved/restored buildings are the Recreation Hall and those adjacent to the museum, and the lavish Manager’s House, complete with marble bath, grand piano and sun room. Sadly, following an expensive restoration of the Skittle Alley in the basement of the Recreation Hall, visitors are no longer permitted to play.

Although it is not obligatory to join a tour, it is worth following one to hear some of the historic detail and stories about Kolmanskop. After about 45 minutes you are left to your own devices to explore all buildings at your leisure. There is a pleasant curio shop and café open during tour hours, and a new diamond room, which sells small single cut diamonds. All stones are cut and polished locally by the NamGem Diamond Manufacturing Company at their cutting factory in Okahanja, and each diamond is issued with a grading report so that the buyer knows exactly what the characteristics of the diamond is. The tiniest ones start from around US$70....read more