Kolmanskop

Kolmanskop sprang up almost overnight after a railway worker discovered diamonds in the sand in 1908, drawing German prospectors who built an incongruous outpost of Wilhelmine architecture, complete with a ballroom, hospital, and the first x-ray station in the southern hemisphere, deep in the Namib Desert. At its peak in the 1920s the town's residents were said to consume more champagne per capita than any other place on Earth, funded by the diamonds pulled from the surrounding dunes. When richer deposits were found further south and diamond prices collapsed after World War I, the town emptied out, and by 1956 it was fully abandoned.

The desert has since reclaimed much of Kolmanskop, with sand drifting through doorways and windows and piling meters deep inside once-grand rooms, an image that has made the town one of the most photographed ruins in southern Africa. Namdeb, the mining company that owns the site, now runs it as a preserved tourist attraction within the restricted Sperrgebiet ('forbidden zone') diamond area. Visitors and photographers frequently remark on the eerie stillness of the buildings, and local guides recount tales of the wind creating voice-like sounds through the empty halls.

Preserved ruin; open for guided tours