150 wild horses roam the Namib Desert’s 80,000 square kilometers, wandering peacefully unaware of the more than 400 million carats of diamonds under hoof. There is much speculation about the origins of the horses. Some think that they are military leftovers abandoned to their own devices by German and South African forces after the First World War. Scant water sources have caused the horses to adapt to surviving long dry periods. As more area becomes protected and used by humans, the horses once again are adapting, now to increased contact with humans.

Diamonds, and subsequently a huge diamond mining industry was begun in 1908 when railway worker, Zacharias Lewala, discovered a glimmering rock while cleaning the rails. Reporting his find to his supervisor led to the origin of Consolidated Diamond Mines, later to become Namdeb in 1994 in collaboration between diamond mining company DeBeers and the Namibian government. A protected zone was established at the onset to regulate the use of the area. Once easily extracted or recovered from topsoil, diamonds now have to be blasted from the cement-like subsoil of a desert that has been arid for more than 55 million years.

Kolmanskop, ‘Coleman’s Hill’ in Afrikaans, was once the center of the diamond mining boom at the first part of the century. Located in the southern part of the Namib Desert, it was a thriving, German-style town until it was abandoned in 1954 as workers moved to areas more amenable to easy mining methods. The remnants of the town have become victim of the Namib Desert, relegating it to a popular tourist attraction.

Source: CNN