Kolmanskuppe - Namibia

Kolmannskuppe (also Kolmanskuppe with just one n; Afrikaans: Kolmanskop) is a ghost town in southern
Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of Lüderitz. It was a small mining village and is now a
popular tourist destination run by the joint firm NAMDEB (Namibia-De Beers).

It developed after the discovery of diamonds in the area in 1908, to provide shelter for workers from the
harsh environment of the Namib Desert. The village was built like a German town, with facilities like a
hospital, ballroom, power station, school, skittle-alley, theater and sport-hall, casino, ice factory and the
first x-ray-station in the southern hemisphere. It also had a railway line to Lüderitz.

The town declined after World War I as diamond prices crashed, and operations moved to Oranjemund.
It was abandoned in 1956 but has since been partly restored. The geological forces of the desert mean
that tourists can now walk through houses knee-deep in sand.















Credits:

Photo by Tobiasasser on Flickr
Photo by 12464238@N08 on Flickr
Photo by Calips96 on Flickr
Photo by Geoftheref on Flickr

 Oradour-sur-Glane - France

Oradour-sur-Glane (Occitan: Orador de Glana) is a town and commune in the Haute-Vienne
département of west-central France.

The original village was destroyed on June 10, 1944, when 642 of its inhabitants were murdered by a
German Waffen-SS company. A new village was built post-war on a nearby site and the original has
been maintained as a memorial.

Credits:

Photo by Iwanap on Flickr
Photo by 9709151@N04 on Flickr
Photo by Curreyuk on Flickr