1. Kolmanskop
Place: Namibia
Period: 1908
Expense:Not specified
The Afrikaans word for “Coleman’s Head,” Kolmanskop, is a ghost town. In Namib, Namibia, it was established. It bears Johnny Coleman’s name, a transport driver who parked his wagon next to a town at the time on a little hill. Diamonds were found at the settlement in 1908.
Namibia’s Kolmanskop © Shutterstock/Kanuman
Even though Africa properly owned the land, the German Empire annexed it, and the community grew into a little but extraordinarily prosperous mining village. The Germans had extracted every diamond from the fields during World War II. The village began to deteriorate, and in 1956 it was abandoned. Strangely, when the town’s residents took off, they left their houses and belongings behind.
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