Excursion Kolmanskop ghost town tour at Luderitz

Lüderitz is an isolated town built on a windswept, rocky hillside beside the bay, and is located on the only part of the Namibian coast with a rocky shore. A peninsula with numerous coves juts out of the coast to form the bay. Twelve islands, collectively known as the Penguin Islands, lie in Namibian waters north and south of Lüderitz.

Behind the town, a road runs into the interior. It passes Kolmanskop, now a ghost town, where diamonds were first mined. Kolmanskop is Namibia's most well-known ghost town, situated in the Spergebiet, (forbidden territory), just a few kilometers inland from Luderitz. In 1908, the railway worker Zacharias Lewala found a sparkling stone amongst the sand he was working in a railway maintenance team near Kolmanskop. His supervisor, August Stauch, was convinced it was a diamond and when this was confirmed, the news spread like wildfire, sparking a “Diamond Rush” which caused fortune hunters to converge on the town in droves.

Kolmanskop soon became a bustling center, providing workers with shelter from the harsh environment of the Namib Desert. Large, elegant houses were built and it soon resembled a German town, complete with an impressive array of amenities including a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, theater and sports hall, casino, ice factory, butchery, bakery and the first X-ray station in the southern hemisphere. The development of Kolmanskop reached its peak in the 1920s, with approximately 300 German adults, 40 children and 800 Ovambo contract workers living in the town. The drop in diamond sales after World War I, as well as the discovery of richer deposits further south at Oranjemund, resulted in the decline of Kolmanskop. Within a span of 40 years, the town lived, flourished and died.

Today the ghost town's crumbling ruins bear little resemblance to its former glory. The stately homes have been nearly demolished by the wind and are gradually becoming enveloped by encroaching sand dunes. The area creates the perfect backdrop for good photographic opportunities, and film enthusiasts may be interested to know that in 2000, the film “The King Is Alive” was filmed in Kolmanskop, with the town being utilized as the film's main setting.

Discover the town in on a self-guided tour, wander through the abandoned, sand filled buildings at your own pace, exploring the haunting remnants now reclaimed by the desert.

Note

Please note: There is a small amount of walking on this tour (much of it optional), and transfers are offered to different vantage points within Lüderitz. There are steps to climb and steeper roads in some places in Lüderitz. Guests needing to return to the coach or wishing to rest at the coffee shop are welcome to do so.