Kolmanskop, Namibia.
(photo by Alvaro Sanchez-Montanes)Kolmanskop was a small mining village. It developed after the discovering of diamonds around the year 1908, to provide shelter for workers from the harsh environment of the Namib Desert. The village was built like a German town, with facilities like a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, theatre, sport-hall, casino, ice factory and the first x-ray-station in the southern hemisphere. It also had a railway line to Lüderitz, a nearby village.
The town declined after World War I as diamond prices crashed, and operations moved to Oranjemund. It was abandoned in 1956 but has since been partly restored. The geological forces of the desert mean that tourists can now walk through houses knee-deep in sand.
