Namibian ghost-town turning back into sand-dunes
Check out these haunting and beautiful photos and video of the abandoned Namibian town of Kolmanskop, a ghost-town that is turning back into sand-dunes.
Link (via Neatorama)
Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of Lüderitz. In 1908, Luederitz was plunged into diamond fever and people rushed into the Namib desert hoping to make an easy fortune. Within two years, a town, complete with a casino, school, hospital and exclusive residential buildings, was established in the barren sandy desert.But shortly after the drop in diamond sales after the First World War, the beginning of the end started. During the 1950's the town was deserted and the dunes began to reclaim what was always theirs.
the latest
latest episodes
This photo reminds me of a Jacek Yerka painting, in his book "Mind Fields"
This place was used, to stunning effect, in Richard Stanley's 1992 film 'Dust Devil'.
Kinda reminds me of a scene in Andrei Tarkovsky's "Stalker" (the bit toward the end, IIRC).
Glancing at Google maps, it looks like that the site is under a kilometer from a pretty well-maintained airport. It makes it seem more familiar, like the little chunks of dead town scattered throughout the California desert, where you can see the buildings at seventy miles an hour as you drive by.
Or airstrip, I should say.
This is very interesting cuz u can see, how now-archeological excavation sites once became. And so will do this place.
One fine day they will find the casino and say "Look at this roulette-like table! Thats where they sacrificed virgins to their primitive heathen gods"
It's the mural which makes this photo for me ... especially since it seems to depict water under a sky whose clouds mirror the dunes.
Too insanely poetic.
The interior shots are weirdly reminiscent of scenes in the snow from the film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993).
Abandoned mining towns throughout the world share some of the same ambience.
Amazing, spookycool photos.
#6, your comment reminded me of a book I've been trying to find for decades. We read it in sixth grade science, and I think it was called The We'uns ...anyone out there know what I'm talking about?
It was set in the far future and interpreted the archaeology of the everyday stuff we left behind. Mind blowing, to say the least. Unfortunately, the only details I can remember are that "we'uns" came from American coins ("us" instead of U.S.) and they thought toilets were thrones.
The music is lovely. Any chance any you know who performed it?
20th century ruins are so evocative, they tug so many different heartstrings -- about adventure, failure, abandonment, possibility, transience...
Adding to the cinematic references: in The King is Alive, a 'dogme' film from 2000, a bus breaks down in Kolmanskop, and the stranded tourists occupy themselves with a production of King Lear.
#9, I'm sure you mean Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay. http://www.amazon.com/Motel-Mysteries-David-Macaulay/dp/0395284252/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201453338&sr=1-6
I'm pretty sure he meant Digging the Weans, published in Harper's Magazine, November 1956. Harper's has it up online, but you can only read it if you subscribe.
Another work in that vein is "The Nacirema: Readings on American Culture" by James P. Spradley.
It's a durable trope.
This site excerpts some bits of the story.
From what I understand, this happens all over the Sahara. Like the ocean's tide, the sand dunes shift over villages and eventually shift back away (or somewhere else) revealing the villages again. When I visited Tunisia, it was explained to me is that when the sand starts to come in on a village, its inhabitants up and move to one that has recently been re-exposed. I don't recall what a typical timeline for this type of cycle is, but now my curiosity is piqued!
#9, the book you're referring to is definitely The Weans by Robert Nathan. Theodore Bikel included a reading of the magazine version ("Digging the Weans") on his 1959 Elektra album, Bravo Bikel!! There is an excerpt from the book at http://www.grand-blanc.k12.mi.us/qip/weans.htm. There. Now we can all get some sleep...
OK, several people were reminded of various books or paintings... none, so far, have hit on the one I am trying to remember: a story in which dunes of some sort of invasive sand from Mars are overtaking a part of Earth (I want to say around Cape Canaveral, but that could be wrong), and a number of people who refuse to leave the quarantined area, living in the half-buried buildings, are slowly hunted down; in the meantime, the orbiting debris from a failed Mars mission reënters Earth's atmosphere and the dead astronauts symbolically make their Mars landing in these alien dunes. I have a very vivid memory of reading this haunting story as a child but nothing beyond that. If I were to guess at an author I'd say Ballard or Bradbury? But, heck, it might not even have been an English author (I read this in translation). Any help identifying?
Never mind! some more creative Googling, and it's "The Cage of Sand" by Ballard. Can't wait to re-read it now.
The Weans is the book I've been searching for! I've already requested a copy from the library. Joy!
Big, big thanks to Teresa and PBR.
-Sally J.
The Practical Archivist