kolmanskop ghost town

Namibia. The geological forces of the desert mean that tourists now walk through houses knee-deep in sand. Formerly, a train line ran eastwards from the coast at Luderitz to the larger town of Keetmanshoop, where it connected with a northern line to the capital. Kolmanskop retained some importance as a supply depot for other mining operations, including those on the Orange River. Once a small but thriving diamond-mining town, Kolmanskop is now abandoned, fighting a constant battle against the devouring sands of the desert that is poised to reclaim the town back to where it belongs. Instead, it now offers a fascinating insight into the lives of its former inhabitants. This village – Kolmanskop – was equipped with every possible luxury and had facilities that were not even available in most German cities at that … Kolmanskop – A Diamond Ghost Town in Namibia. Kolmanskop is a famous ghost town in the Namib desert in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port town of Lüderitz. Er wurde gerettet, musste jedoch seinen Ochsenkarren zurücklassen. The town started to decline during World War II when the diamond-field slowly started to deplete. In the 1950s Kolmanskop was ultimately abandoned, but it can hardly be called totally deserted: this ghost town became a popular tourist destination. The town was ultimately abandoned in 1956. Share This. It is isolated by the arctic Benguela currents to the west, and the featureless Namib desert in all other directions. The hall was also used by the local orchestra, theatre group and gymnastics troop. Such wealth meant that despite the harsh climate and isolation, the miners could afford every possible European luxury. By the early-’30s, the area was in decline. Kolmanskop Ghost Town, Namibia. Welcome to Kolmanskop. World War I interrupted mining operations. The weather there is extreme both from the … The air in the deserted streets carries no hint of moisture. Download German Kolmanskop Ghost Town Abandoned Buildings Namib Desert Stock Photography via CartoonDealer. Life exists solely in the form of isolated stunted shrubs eking out a living; testing the limits of survival. Once a small but very rich mining village, it is now a tourist destination run by the joint firm Namibia-De Beers. The water nurtured lush gardens with manicured lawns, rose beds and eucalyptus trees. Despite the structural damage to houses, the Namib Desert’s incredibly arid temperatures manage to uphold the existing look of the rooms, leaving the wallpaper and paint in a chilling state of preservation. Because to the flourishing diamond industry, Lüderitz prospered and a small town was built about 10 kilometers away for German staff of the diamond company and their families. Photographing Kolmanskop, a Ghost Town in Namibia April 18, 2020 So, it is the start of a new project and new adventures after a short break at the beginning of my Nomadic journey in Cape Town, South Africa. Please enable JavaScript on your browser to best view this site. In fact, even now you can find many ghost towns on our Earth. Far on the Namib desert’s isolated and vast edge lies the uncanny structures of what once was a bustling ‘rich’ town. The diamonds were picked off the ground and the jars filled rapidly. The new diamond find merely required scouting the beaches as opposed to more difficult mining. These lands belong to a diamond-mining company. General view of Kolmanskop ghost town near Lüderitz. Welcome to Kolmanskop. With the passing of many years and the harsh desert-like conditions and the constant wearing away from the ever-present sand, the town of Kolmanskop is a sad reminder of its former glory. But, in the middle of the last century, the village was abandoned and today only the sand of the Namib … It is not until you approach the houses that their characteristic German architecture, featuring truncated roofs and generous windows, can be appreciated. An ice plant was established to make blocks to use in food coolers as well as to manufacture the town’s own delicious lemonade. The full privacy & disclosure policy is here. These were on the beach terraces 270km south of Kolmanskop, near the Orange River. Kolmanskop ghost town is gradually being devoured by the desert. This is one of the best-combined adventures on offer in Southern Namibia. As hard as it is to believe, Kolmanskop was once one of the world's wealthiest towns. Kolmanskop Ghost Town attracts photographers from all over the world for its unique photographic opportunities. Dilapidated buildings and houses are reclaimed by sand making it a very unique and spectacular photographic site for tourists. This inhospitable and desolate region had been offered to the Cape government in 1885 but politely refused. It was named after a transport driver named Johnny Coleman who, during a sand storm, abandoned his ox wagon on a small incline opposite the settlement. Mr Zirkler's butchery (on the right) at Kolmanskop ghost town and Mr Brechlin's bakery on the left. As we explained some weeks ago when we were back from Namibia, one of the reasons for us to visit the south of the country was the Ghost Town of Kolmanskop. Your Kolmanskop Ghost Town stock images are ready. The landscape serves as a surreal … This ghost town is located +/- 10 km from coastal town Lüderitz. Kolmanskop became a diamond hotspot. Elaborate houses were built to accommodate the town’s architect, teacher, doctors and mining managers. It was named after a transport driver named Johnny Coleman who, during a sand storm, abandoned his ox wagon on a small incline opposite the settlement. This role passed, too, as it became easier to bring supplies from South Africa. The eerie ‘rich’ ghost town of Kolmanskop. Kolmanskop is popular with photographers for its settings of the desert sands' reclaiming this once-thriving town, and the arid climate preserving the traditional Edwardian architecture in the area. Today, you need a permit to visit Kolmanskop. Kolmanskop was featured on the series "Mysteries of the Abandoned" episode entitled "Animal Uprising", that first aired October 18, 2020 on the Animal Planet Channel. Only fragments of the inhabitants’ lives remain, a battered kettle in a beautifully tiled kitchen, a warped wardrobe resting wearily on its side, some painstakingly hand-painted wall designs, a bathtub breasting a growing dune like a boat at sea. Yes, this is, in fact, the very natural position I take all of my photos in, why do you ask? Mr Stauch, a former employee of De Beers in South Africa, took the stones to Luderitz for an expert opinion. In 2002, a local private company called Ghost Town Tours was awarded the concession to manage Kolmanskop as a tourist attraction, bussing visitors into the forbidden zone … JAVASCRIPT IS DISABLED. The fine desert sands are blown through the town, working their way into the abandoned houses. Kolmanskop was used as the location for the South African TV series, The town was used as one of the locations in the 1993 film, The town was used as one of the locations in the 1994 film, The town was used in the first episode of the BBC series, Featured in 2011 on Season 1, Episode 2 Namibia/Bodie of the television show "Forgotten Planet", This page was last edited on 29 March 2021, at 09:37. The Namibian government is pretty paranoid about smuggling, so it tightly controls visits to the town. Our first stop together was Kolmanskop, an eerie ghost town 15km east of the harbour town of Lüderitz. The stage in Kolmanskop Recreation Club. While it’s not difficult to navigate this bureaucracy, it’s important to understand what you need in advance. Many fantastic movies feature the idea of the global post-apocalypse: the majority of people are gone, megalopolises that once were noisy and full of life become empty and lifeless, the winds blow through deserted buildings and wild animals occupy former human dwellings. Kolmanskop became a diamond hotspot. Among the gentle curves of the sand drifts and bleached stone outcrops, ornate buildings rise, defying their desolate surroundings and exuding an air of quiet dignity. Hastening the town’s demise decades earlier was the discovery in 1928 of the richest diamond-bearing deposits ever known, on the beach terraces 270 km south of Kolmanskop, near the Orange River. When diamond fever took over at the beginning of the 20th century before WW1, Kolmanskop was a flourishing town 10km from the coast. Kolmanskop nowadays: an abandoned ghost town in the desert. The houses still stand but it is the elements that are in control. Kolmanskop lies 850km south-west of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, and 10km east of the isolated coastal town of Luderitz. It had a railway link to Lüderitz. Kolmanskop (Afrikaans for Coleman's head, German: Kolmannskuppe) is a ghost town in the Namib in southern Namibia, ten kilometres inland from the port town of Lüderitz. Kolmanskop began life in 1908 as a humble railway station located between Lüderitz and Keetmanshoop further east. This ghost town is located +/- 10 km from coastal town Lüderitz. March 18, 2020 Dave. Join our team on a Kolmanskop Ghost Town Safari adventure. Due to its location within the restricted area (Sperrgebiet) of the Namib desert, tourists need a permit to enter the town. Kolmanskop Ghost Town is situated about 10 km’s inland from Luderitz. Kolmanskop Ghost Town in Namibia is such a place. By the early 1950s, the area was in a severe decline. It’s said that the station was named after transport worker Johnny … The gymnasium in Kolmanskop Recreation Club. Today, Kolmanskop is a ghost town that lies abandoned in the desert. They were not disappointed, having captured EVPs of ghosts whispering in their ears after locking themselves in the abandoned meat locker of the butcher shop. Now, Kolmanskop is a ghost town, decaying in the Namibian desert, and just asking to be explored. The habitants had a pub, a butcher, a Within a time frame of 40 years, the town of Kolmanskop in Namibia was created, flourished and was left deserted, becoming a ghost town International: +27 21 201 2484 enquiries@picciplanner.com Here amongst the wind swept houses of Kolmanskop lies the key to a past long gone, the remains of an era where diamonds sparkled and sustained life along the coast of Namibia. A large hospital employed two German doctors, one of whom was understandably popular for prescribing his patients an evening tonic of caviar sandwiches and champagne. Driven by the enormous wealth of the first diamond miners, the residents built the village in the architectural style of a German town, with amenities and institutions including a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, skittle-alley, theatre and sport-hall, casino, ice factory and the first x-ray-station in the southern hemisphere, as well as the first tram in Africa. Abandoned home at Kolmanskop ghost town flooded with windswept sand dunes. 1. If you … This town was once a rich diamond mining village built in the German architectural style. If you book with Tripadvisor, you can cancel at least 24 hours before the start date of your tour for a full refund. Do you need to book in advance to visit Kolmanskop Ghost Town? And located in sperrgebiet ‘forbidden – zone’ The town was created after the discovering of some special stones which where diamonds. Kolmanskop Ghost Town. The vastness of the lonely landscape dwarfs the buildings and the sand seeks to hide the structures within itself. Kolmanskop (Afrikaans for Coleman's head, German: Kolmannskuppe) is a ghost town in the Namib in southern Namibia, ten kilometres inland from the port town of Lüderitz. Laborers, organised in search lines and muffled against the blowing sands, crawled along on all fours armed with jam jars. Many of the town’s inhabitants joined the rush to the south, leaving their homes and possessions behind. German Kolmanskop Kolmannskuppe Ghost Town Namibia Abandoned Buildings Namib Desert. Articles on this site contain affiliate links, meaning I may be compensated if you buy a product or service after clicking them. The Ghost Town of Kolmanskop. The desert is coming to relentlessly reclaim its territory under an ever thickening fold of sand. It was said of the Germans that only after they had finished building the pub and the skittle alley, their favorite form of relaxation, did they start looking for suitable plots to build their houses. The first of these adventures led me to a place that I have been dreaming about visiting since 2013, the ghost town of Kolmanskop in Namibia. In 1908, in what was then German South-West Africa, the worker Zacharias Lewala found a diamond while working in this area and showed it to his supervisor, the German railway inspector August Stauch. In the year 1908 the black worker of the German Reichsbahn, Zacharias Lewala, found a twinkling stone when repairing the tracks and took it to his boss August Stauch. Formerly, a train line ran eastwards from the coast at Luderitz to the larger town of Keetmanshoop, where it connected with a northern line to the capital. [1] Once a small but very rich mining village, it is now a tourist destination run by the joint firm Namibia-De Beers. This is an arid region and along the way, we might be so lucky to stumble across the wild horses of the Namib! It was only partly able to redeem itself at Christmas by pulling a sled containing Father Christmas over the sand. In April of 1908, Zacharias Lewala, a worker on the railway line between Luderitz and Aus in what is now southern … Kolmanskop, Namibia’s Ghost Town in the Desert. 10 Pfennig stamp with postmark Kolmannskuppe 19. In the dry, barren stretches on the edge of the Namib Desert in south-western Africa lie the bones of a grand town. The roofs are gradually being laid bare and the glass worked from the ornate frames. The habitants had a pub, a butcher, a K olmanskop is an abandoned diamond mining town on the south western Namibian coast. The sands that were once swept up every morning now gather unhindered. Kolmanskop (Afrikaans for Coleman’s head, German: Kolmannskuppe) is a ghost town in the Namib in southern Namibia, 10 kilometres inland from the port town of Lüderitz. Fresh water was bought in by rail from 120km away and pumped into storage tanks. And located in sperrgebiet ‘forbidden – zone’ The town was created after the discovering of some special stones which where diamonds. The richest diamond deposits in the world were to be found in this area. km along the Atlantic shore. It is hard to imagine the difficulties of traveling there a hundred years ago, much less how it developed as a remote enclave of European luxury. This chance find pulled the trigger for an unprecedented diamond rush in one of the most inhospitable regions of Africa. Many of the town’s inhabitants joined the rush to the south, leaving their homes and possessions behind. You can pick these up in Lüderitz (at Lüderitz Safaris and Tours). Pets were difficult to keep in the conditions, but one family had a pet ostrich that terrorised the townspeople. Kolmanskop – A ghost town in Namibia Not a whole lot can be said about the abandoned ghost town in the south west of the Namib desert in Namibia . The stones were diamonds. Kolmanskop lies 850km south-west of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, and 10km east of the isolated coastal town of Luderitz. It was named after a transport driver named Johnny Coleman who, during a sand storm, abandoned his ox wagon on a small incline opposite the settlement. It really didn’t make any sense. Kolmanskop grew out of the diamond boom. When the rumors of the discovery, in what was then known as German South-West Africa, reached Cape Town, they were received with incredulity. The resumption of mining after the war led to the slow depletion of deposits. Luderitz is a curious little town with the look and feel of an old German-inspired fishing village. 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