Ghost Town in the desert, Namibia (12 pics + text)

In 1908, the railway worker Zacharias Leviev is the first time found a sparkling stone in the sand near the railway 7 km from the town of Luderitz. At one time he worked at the Kimberly and seasoned managed to see the diamond look directly at the surface of the sandy desert ...


Zacharias gave finder foreman Shtauhu Augustus, who was still bright-eyed and immediately realized what was happening ... without attracting undue attention, he hurried to stake out vast areas along the narrow saddle in the Dolomites mountain range, near Luderitz ...


In this peculiar corridor wind carries sand from the mouth of the Orange adjacent to the southern part of the Namib desert further north. It was there, realized shrewd Shtauh, small diamonds, handed down the river into the ocean, and then thrown out by the surf on the beach, with sand carried along. In a few years, the foreman became a multimillionaire.


Finding Leval and Shtauha was the beginning of the diamond fever - over the next decade Kolmanskop became a bustling European city, a small paradise of German culture ...


They were built big beautiful homes, a school, a stadium, a swimming pool. Well equipped hospital could boast the first in Africa, the X-ray unit. Residents were counting on a long prosperity in the diamond city. Indeed, in this desolate corner of the diamond it was so much that the workers were crawling on his stomach and easily sgrimeli their brush in the scoop.


However, perhaps displaced somewhat offended the local deities. Or maybe just born under an unlucky star. But the flow of diamonds quickly dried up, and as soon as started to dig deeper, it became clear that, alas, is no ultimate treasure in the Namibian soil is not expected - diamond reserves almost exhausted by the fact that it was found on the surface ...


The discovery of new, rich deposits of diamonds, brought an end to the prosperity of the city ...


Then it became clear that to live in this town hard, and no reason - sandstorms, lack of drinking water. And ten years after the founding of a mass exodus of the local residents.


People fled the city and the desert began to attack relentlessly ...


Since Kolmanskop well worth the amazing ghost town in the middle of the sandy desert ...


Most of the houses are almost entirely covered with sand, and produces several dismal.


Although, in his efforts to draw the attention of tourists to the region, Namibians in 1980 restored some of the buildings and Kolmanskop has found a new life, but now the city museum ...

A source