Swallowed by the desert: Eerie pictures from the ghost town that was abandoned to the sand 50 years ago

Kolmanskop was founded in the early 1900s when diamonds were found in the desert but abandoned 40 years later

It was once home to hundreds of German families who flocked to the area to try and make their fortune



The ghost town is now a magnet for tourists and photographers after it was made a museum




It was once the home to hundreds of German miners desperately seeking their fortune in the Namibian desert.



But almost 100 years after Kolmanskop peaked as a thriving and bustling oasis, it is now a dilapidated ghost town slowly being reclaimed by the sand.



Tourists and photographers now flock to the area to see the formally grand German houses gradually sink into desert.



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The traditional German architecture has been battered by decades of desert winds after Kolmanskop was abandoned by its German founders in 1954 Kolmanskop thrived in the early 1900s after diamonds were discovered in the sand and was once home to hundreds of German miners and local contract workers The creepy remains of Kolmanskop have made it a magnet to ghost hunters and it has featured on a number of paranormal series

The eerily empty buildings have been reclaimed by the sand that lies feet deep in places as the dunes encroach on the ghost town

The town was built and abandoned within just 40 years and for decades was then left to the desert.



Grand stately homes have been ravaged by the wind and the encroaching dunes have left buildings feet deep in sand.



However, mining company De Beers set up a museum in 1980 to preserve some of the history of Kolmanskop.



Now tourists come to see the restored buildings and walk around the eerie abandoned homes.

Kolmanskop was founded in the early 1900s when diamonds were discovered just sitting on the sand.



Railway worker Zacharias Lewala found the gem in 1908 as he dug away from the railway line.



The dunes have trapped the ghost town in time and over the decades have even crept around this door and forced it open

The brightly coloured walls of this building have been ravaged by years of strong winds and desert sands

These pictures were taken by photographer Michiel Van Balen and form part of his collection called Devoured By The Desert: Creepy Kolmanskop Ghost Town



Kolmanskop was partly restored by mining company De Beers in 1980 and now form a popular tourist attraction

The ghost town is historically important as the site of Africa's first tram and the southern hemisphere's first X-ray station

He showed it to his boss August Stauch, who got the stone tested and had it confirmed as a diamond.



The news sparked a diamond rush on the area and within a few years hundreds of Germans had set up home in the Namib Desert.

Kolmanskop grew and soon resembled a German town. Residents built a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, skittle alley, theatre and sports hall and an ice factory.



The town even boasted the first X-ray station in the southern hemisphere as well as Africa's first tram.



By the 1920s, 300 German adults, 40 children and 800 native Owambo contract workers lived in Kolmanskop.



The town grew quickly thanks to the diamond rush and had a hospital, ballroom, power station, theatre and sports hall, as well as an ice factory

The unique look of the town has made it a perfect setting for many directors, who have recorded films and TV series at Kolmanskop

The wind is constantly covering and uncovering parts of Kolmanskop as it carries huge amounts of sand in and out of the buildings

The Namibia tourist board said: ' In spite of, or probably because of, the isolation and bleakness of the surrounding desert, Kolmanskop developed into a lively little haven of German culture, offering entertainment and recreation to suit the requirements of the affluent colonialists.'

However when the price of diamonds began to drop after World War One the town began to deteriorate, particularly after richer diamonds were found further south and it was abandoned in 1954.

The ghost town has been used in many South African television series and films and was also the setting for the 2000 film The King Is Alive.

