Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of Lüderitz. In 1908, Luederitz was plunged into diamond fever and people rushed into the Namib desert hoping to make an easy fortune. Within two years, a town, complete with a casino, school, hospital and exclusive residential buildings, was established in the barren sandy desert.
But shortly after the drop in diamond sales after the First World War, the beginning of the end started. During the 1950’s the town was deserted and the dunes began to reclaim what was always theirs.
[View all the pictures and read the full story at Fogonazos]
Its the pictures of Nature reclaiming what was abandoned that seems coolest at times. The old airfield that now looks like a pasture, the abandoned mental institution that is slowly disappearing in some trees, the old Amusement park that is disappearing into a forest, becoming one with nature. Any time I feel that we will cement over everything and nature will never return, I just have to run across something like the city above. What was once a fairly good size city, now becoming a sand dune that once was kept out.
Below is a tour of this city.
Tags: abandoned, Nature, Photographs, Video
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