Kolmanskop Ghost Town

One of Africa’s most photographed places — a diamond-era German town being slowly swallowed by the Namib sand. In 1908, railway worker Zacharias Lewala found a diamond in the drifting sand near here, triggering a diamond rush that within four years produced 1 million carats annually — 11.7% of world output. The Germans built a complete town: hospital with the first X-ray machine in the southern hemisphere, ballroom, theatre, casino, ice factory, school and the first tram in Africa. By 1956 it was abandoned. Now Namdeb (Namibian government + De Beers) opens it to tourists. Walk through rooms knee-deep in sand, photograph desert light pouring through broken windows.