Oranjemund

Oranjemund (Dutch for "Mouth of Orange") is a diamond mining town in the ǁKaras Region of the extreme southwest of Namibia, on the northern bank of the Orange River mouth at the border with South Africa. It had a population of 7,736 people in 2023.

==History== The entire area along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean was proclaimed restricted (the Sperrgebiet) in 1908 due to the occurrence of alluvial diamonds. Since then, the public has been forbidden entry into the area. In 1927 diamonds were found south of the Orange River in South Africa. Hans Merensky and other prospectors assumed that the shoreline north of the Orange river mouth in Namibian territory would also have diamonds. A year later they conducted an expedition from Lüderitz south to the mouth of the Orange River, where they found rich deposits on the north side of the river and the adjacent coastline and established a tented camp from which Oranjemund developed.