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Kollmanskuppe is a ghost town in the Namib about 10 km east of Lüderitz. In 1908, diamonds were found nearby, which led to the foundation of the city. In the middle of an extremely hostile environment, within a few months, a city was built for up to 400 inhabitants, with its own hospital (with the first X-ray machine in Africa), sports hall, bowling alley, water supply, ice machines - all that Central Europeans could miss in southern Africa It was available. During this time Kollmanskuppe was the richest city in the world.
Soon the nearby diamond fields were dismantled and the search extended to more southern claims around Elisabeth Bay.
Around 1930, the diamond mining was discontinued here, and since then the desert has gradually returned to the city. Dunes migrate over and through the buildings and will spill or destroy them over the next decades.
Even today the area is restricted area, visitors can only come with permission and under surveillance here.
Welcome to Africa, AKA the motherland! Check out African Internet Radio while you're scoping the panoramas.The earliest fossil of the homo sapiens family (human beings) was found in Ethiopia, dating back more than 200,000 years. Compared to this length of time, even the "ancient Sumerians" from 6000 B.C. are drooling toddlers.Let's mention a few African heroes you may have heard of, for inspiration in the face of the continued economic inequality and violence which plague Africa today: Nelson Mandela, first democratically elected President of South Africa, who fought against apartheid and served 27 years in prison while advocating freedom and peace. Haile Salassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, who resisted Mussolini and the fascist Italian invasion of WWII, and who is worshipped as an incarnation of God by the Rastafari movement. Kwame Nkrumah, first Prime Minister of Ghana, advocate of uniting Africa in Pan-Africanism. Fela Kuti, inventor of Afrobeat music, who declared his home to be an independent state, ran for president of Nigeria, and to whose funeral ONE MILLION PEOPLE came to pay their respects.In June 2001 the African Union was formed, consisting of 53 African States organized, like in the EU, around common economic and political development.Text by Steve Smith.
