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Kolmanskop

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Kolmanskop

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Kolmanskop (Afrikaans for "Coleman's peak", ) is a ghost town in the Namib in southern Namibia, 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. Once a small but very rich mining village, it is now a popular tourist destination run by Namdeb, a joint firm owned by the Namibian government and De Beers.

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Place details

Locality
Lüderitz
Region
ǁKharas Region
Country
Namibia
Population
0

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Key facts

Settlement.name
Kolmanskop
Settlement.settlement_type
Town
Settlement.image_skyline
Kolmanskop Ghost Town.jpg
Settlement.imagesize
250px
Settlement.image_caption
An aerial view of Kolmanskop
Settlement.pushpin_map
Namibia
Settlement.pushpin_label_position
bottom
Settlement.pushpin_mapsize
250
Settlement.pushpin_map_caption
Location in Namibia
Settlement.subdivision_type
Country
Settlement.subdivision_type1
Region
Settlement.subdivision_name1
ǁKaras Region
Settlement.population_as_of
2024
Settlement.population_total
0

via Wikipedia infobox

Travel guide

See

thumb|Berg Street, lined with buildings from the period of German rule There are many historic German colonial buildings including the Deutsche Afrika bank building, the Station building, the Old Post Office, and the small Felsenkirche (the church on the rocks), a Lutheran church. One of the most notable buildings is the Goerke Haus at the end of Zeppelin Street. This is one of Lüderitz's best preserved buildings, considered one of the "diamond palaces". Other buildings of note are Troost House, Kreplin House, Krappenhoft and Lampe building, Woermann House and Turnhalle.

Southwest of town, Lüderitz Peninsula is criss-crossed by 4x4 tracks and small roads. The major attraction, the replica of the cross erected by Bartholomew Dias in 1487, is reachable via District Roads but many of the tracks to minor destinations are not passable with a sedan, including the majority of the bays, and the "Kleine Bogenfels" (Rock Arch Minor) rock formation. Visit the breeding ground of the endemic Damara Tern, several bays teeming with birds, and (with good binoculars) the penguins on Halifax Island.

Do

thumb|300px|Inside a building in Kolmanskop

Eat

Seafood is a speciality of the area. Lüderitz is a centre for rock lobster and oysters, and holds an annual crayfish festival.

Drink

Windhoek Lager Beer, brewed in Windhoek. Brewed according to the German Beer Purity Law, it's the best beer you'll find in southern Africa.

Sleep

thumb|More confection-like German buildings in Lüderitz There are several hotels plus several guesthouses and a backpackers hostel.

Connect

The area code for Lüderitz is 063. There is cellphone coverage in town and along the main road, both from MTC and Telecom.

Stay safe

This town can be very windy. Particularly at the end of December through the middle of February, the wind can be quite substantial. Watch out for small sand dunes on the B4 that pile up all the time; any one of them, however small, is comparable to a pile of bricks when your car hits it.

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~6 min read

Encyclopedic overview

9 sections
Contents
  • History
  • Foundation and peak
  • Decline
  • In popular culture
  • Literature
  • Gallery
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Kolmanskop (Afrikaans for "Coleman's peak", ) is a ghost town in the Namib in southern Namibia, 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. Once a small but very rich mining village, it is now a popular tourist destination run by Namdeb, a joint firm owned by the Namibian government and De Beers.

==History== ===Foundation and peak=== In 1908, in what was then German South-West Africa, a railroad 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 settled, and soon after the German Empire declared a large area as a "Sperrgebiet" (German, meaning "prohibited area"), starting to exploit the diamond field.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Kolmanskop” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (2)

On the map

2 mapped locations