Kolmanskop, Lüderitz
Once a glittering diamond boomtown in the early 1900s, Kolmanskop is now a hauntingly beautiful ghost settlement slowly reclaimed by the Namib Desert. Ornate German colonial homes, a theater, bowling alley, and hospital stand half-buried by dunes that drift through doorways and swallow hallways in soft, peach light. Photographers love the textures and symmetry; history lovers come for stories of fortune and abandonment. Just outside Lüderitz, guided visits reveal how a remote desert outpost rose and faded with the diamond rush, leaving behind one of Namibia’s most surreal sights.