Kolmannskuppe – by Gary

Not far inland from Lüderitz is the ‘ghost town’ of Kolmannskuppe.  Diamond mining in Namibia followed a familiar trajectory: starting with individual prospectors staking out and working claims it quickly, with assistance from government, became highly corporatised and monopolized (hello Mr DeBeers).  Kolmannskuppe was a major company town and centre of mining activity, that is until the focus shifted further south towards the mouth of the Orange River.  The last residents left in 1956 and the abandoned town is now a premier tourist attraction.

Namib dunes sweep through the ‘executive housing’ belt.  This was the house of the company’s accountant 

An exceedingly elegant pad huh?.

The desert slowly encroaches the more down market school masters house.

Thousands of tonnes, a slow, inexorable ocean, engulfs the 200 bed hospital.

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