It is probably true to say that Kolmanskop (or Kolmanskuppe) was the reason that I returned to Namibia.  When I first visited the country, Kolmanskop was the destination that I most wanted to see and yet I never did.  Now, having begun to reach an age when I am trying to right some of the omissions of my youth, a visit to Kolmanskop was a notable entry on the list.

And it did not disappoint.

During the 1910s, Kolmanskop was one of the most prosperous places on earth.  The first diamond had been found there in 1908 and a predictable ‘rush’ ensued.  But, its glory was short-lived.  By the 1920s, the town was already in decline and, by the 1950s, it was abandoned.

Abandoned by humans, but not by nature.  Opportunistic hyenas moved in.  As did the sand.  Modern-day Kolmanskop stands as a ghost town overtaken by sand, and is all the more evocative for it.

Roughly eight miles east of Lüderitz, a recognisable shell of Kolmanskop is still in place.  The grand two-storey residencies on the rise, all constructed in a distinctive German colonial style; the power plant; the hospital; the long barracks; even the old bar with its indoor skittles alley.

But, everywhere, the sand hold sway.  Breaking through windows; filling up rooms; blocking doorways.

Initially, I joined a guided tour of Kolmanskop.  The guide was very informative – too informative.  We were in danger of lingering too long over exhibits of old photographs of Kolmanskop’s heyday when, in all truth, all I wanted to do was to clamber through spooky old, abandoned buildings filled up with sand.  I escaped the organised tour and went rogue.

Nowhere was out of bounds; no one could do more damage to the old town than Nature had already wrought.  There were no health and safety notices; no restrictions to climbing half-collapsed staircases; no prohibitions concerning entering rooms where the ceiling had caved in.  It was one massive grown-up adventure playground, and it was thrilling.

I couldn’t explore everywhere quickly enough.  In and out of buildings: doorways; windows; any point of entry was permissible.  If there was such a creature as the Namibian Desert Ferret – there isn’t (Ed.) – I was it; off into any possible rabbit-hole before you could say Jack Robinson.

It might have been diamonds that originally drew settlers to Kolmanskop, but it is humble sand that is now the big attraction.

It is Ozymandias in architectural form.

Perhaps everyone enjoys to see the mighty fallen?

© E. C. Glendenny

E. C. Glendenny is a bit of a traveller from an antique land herself.