Visiting Kolmanskop, the ghost town in the Namib near Lüderitz, Namibia.

Visiting Kolmanskop, the ghost town in the Namib near Lüderitz, Namibia.

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. 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.[1] Once a small but very rich mining village, it is now a tourist destination run by the joint firm Namibia-De Beers.

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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. Realizing the area was rich in diamonds, German miners began settlement, and soon after the German Empire declared a large area as a "Sperrgebiet", starting to exploit the diamond field.[2]
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. It had a railway link to Lüderitz.

Brown hyenas are one of Africa's large carnivores. They occur in the southern African sub-region: Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Republic of South Africa and Namibia. In Namibia they are found throughout the entire country except in the north, north-eastern and south-eastern parts. The total population size of brown hyenas is estimated to be between 5000 and 8000 animals, which make them one of the rarest large African carnivores.

Namib Brown hyenas weigh between 35 and 45 kg, with the males being slightly heavier than females.
Brown hyenas live in groups, called clans. 
At the Namib Desert Coast, brown hyenas are the only large predators and their only competitors are black-backed jackals. Prey density is generally low and therefore they can't rely on regular meals found as carcasses. However carrion, such as seabirds or Cape fur seals, is washed up along the entire Namibian coastline and serves as an important food source.

Why is Kolmanskop Namibia abandoned?
Intensive mining depleted the area by the 1930s, and in 1928, the town's fate was sealed when the richest diamond fields ever known were found on the beach terraces to the south. The townspeople left in droves, abandoning homes and possessions. By 1956, Kolmanskop was completely abandoned.

Are there still diamonds in Kolmanskop?
Situated on the southern flank of West Africa's sprawling Namib Desert, the small town of Kolmanskop has been reclaimed by the sand. But 100 years ago it was home to a busy diamond mine

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