5th March
Thursday
9:04 A.M.
Dear Friend,
Welcome to the 2nd installment of letters from Namibia From The Roadside community.
The aim of these letters is simple: to inspire your next trip, share places that leave a mark, and help you see Namibia with fresh eyes.
Today’s feature is on the Sperrgebiet, or the “Forbidden Zone”. It's a short four minute read.
Before we get into it, if you haven’t already, the Namibia Grasshopper: A First Timer’s Route travel itinerary has been updated for 2026 and may be downloaded here. Free of charge.
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The Sperrgebiet [English: “Forbidden Zone”] is a roughly 26,000 km² area of South Western Namibia that is inaccessible to the public. For context, this area alone is larger than countries like Slovenia and El Salvador.
From the Orange River on the South African border 270km up to Luderitz, this area is essentially uninhabited, consisting of the barren remains of old German Towns within an ocean of sand.
It is within the wooden doorways of these early German Towns that lives a remarkable chapter of Namibian and Southern African history.
The Sperrgbiet extends from Namibia’s Southern Border to the South, to the port of Luderitz to the North.
The Sperrgbiet extends from Namibia’s Southern Border to the South, to the port of Luderitz to the North.
When the 83.5-carat Diamond now known as “The Star of South Africa” was traded to Schalk van Niekerk from a local shepherd in South Africa’s Northern Cape (c.1870), a harsh, unrelenting part of the world no one thought ripe for diamonds was suddenly descended upon by all manner of men from the old and new world both, allured by the chance of fortune on the diamond fields.
Meanwhile, Germany’s sole colonial interest was North of the Orange River in German South West Africa (now Namibia), growing out of one of the country’s only two natural ports - Luderitzbucht.
Quite different from Germany, the area of Luderitzbucht consisted of harsh rock and ocean winds on the coast, surrounded by burning sun and deep sand as far as the eye can see.
Yet upon that deep sand, it was said that diamonds were so plentiful that you could watch the desert glimmer under the light of the moon.
Quickly, the town of Kolmanskop was constructed just inland from Luderitzbucht, and the Sperrgbiet was established - the Forbidden Zone.
This was to exploit the diamond wealth of this vast area, in large part to help fund Germany’s colonial ambitions in the region.
Unlike in South Africa’s Northern Cape, where men from France to Australia shared tents on the diamond fields, diamond mining in the Sperrgbiet was a tightly controlled and strictly German affair
Where South Africa’s Kimberly spent its early life as a tent city with the odd corrugated iron building, Kolmanskop was a planned, well-constructed town with spacious houses and grand manors.
Thanks to this, we can still walk through these hauntingly beautiful buildings today.
Originating deep beneath the Drakensberg Mountains, carried through South Africa’s Orange River over millions of years before being scattered onto the Namib Desert Dunes, the glimmer of the stones upon the golden sand seems like divine trickery - alluring men into the desert to simply come and collect them, only to face the unrelenting power of the desert.
Sandstorms, biting winds, burning temperatures by day and freezing at night. Water was shipped in by train.
Tracks back to Kolmanskop would often be covered by new sand as the day closed. Even new machinery arriving from Germany would have to fight its way into the deeper Sperrgbiet by hard labour and draft animals.
What happened at Kolmanskop?
In 1914, World War I broke out, with the Allied Union of South Africa and German South West Africa on opposite sides of the war. This, coupled with the waning diamond industry, began the decline of Kolmanskop and similar mining towns. But the real exodus came later.
Just as diamond mining in South Africa increasingly concentrated around the Orange River towards Kimberly, deposits eventually discovered on the beaches of South West Africa’s Orange River border (to the South) dwarfed that which remained around Kolmanskop.
The town was abandoned in 1956, with many Kolmanskop residents heading to the growing towns of the south, still drawn by the power of diamonds. Now all of these towns lie engulfed in sand.
There is a certain romanticism about the towns of men in search of the desert’s wonders now being retaken by the desert itself.
It reminds us in Kolmanskop just as in ancient Twyfelfontein, everything’s temporary.
The Sperrgbiet remains a forbidden zone, save for limited guided tours. Even after decades of intensive diamond exploration, it is still formally considered a Diamond Area, for the sole operation and benefit of Namdeb Diamond Corporation - a partnership between DeBeers and the Namibian Government.
Kolmanskop featured in the cover for musician Tame Impala’s 2020 album The Slow Rush
Kolmanskop featured on a number of occasions in 2024 TV Show Fallout on Amazon Prime.
Kolmanskop is easy to find. It sits just off the highway around 10km before entering Luderitz, and can be accessed via a simple ticket upon arrival.
Luderitz is reachable via B roads (tarred), around three hours due West from Keetmanshoop, or a total of around 8 hours of driving from Windhoek.
But it is better added to an itinerary via the exceptionally scenic C27 route from Sesreim which connects to the highway at the small town of Aus, which is, in our view, a superior 1-2 day stayover than staying in Luderitz Town itself.
Aus is a short 1 - 1.5 hour drive from Luderitz, and is nestled amongst beautiful rocky structures and golden fields, and the Klein Aus Vista Desert Horse Inn is one of our favorites lodges in the country.
Photo Roundup
Our community began and continues thriving on travellers and locals alike sharing glimpses of this beautiful country. In these letters, we want to bring you a short roundup of our favourite most recent photographs shared by you across our socials.
