[SLIDESHOW] Kolmanskop Mining Town

Nearly 100 years have passed since the discovery of Kolmanskop but remnants of the town still exist today.

The story of Kolmanskop began in the early 1900s when diamond fever sparked life into the barren South African landscape of Namibia. Driven by the enormous wealth of the first diamond miners, Kolmanskop flourished into a vibrant community of almost 1,000 miners and their families. The town incorporated German-style housing and had amenities and institutions, including a hospital, school, power station, casino, and the first tram in Africa.

After World War I, however, the diamond fields slowly dried up and the future of Kolmanskop was in decline. In 1958, the site was ultimately abandoned, leaving it frozen in time.

In 1980, in an effort to preserve some of the history, mining company De Beers incorporated the desolated site into a museum. A once thriving mining community, Kolmanskop is now a ghost town being slowly reclaimed by desert elements.