Crazy Sand Swallowed This Ghost Town and It Looks Mind-Blowingly Cool

So, there’s this diamond mining town called Kolmanskop tucked away in Namibia’s Namib Desert. It popped up in the early 1900s thanks to a diamond rush. But by the 1950s, it was totally deserted.

Back in the day, this place was loaded with cash and even had the first X-ray machine below the equator - fancy, huh?

The whole diamond craze kicked off when a railway guy found some shiny rocks and showed his boss, who just so happened to be a diamond expert. Boom, town built for hundreds of miners!

By 1912, Kolmanskop was pumping out a million carats - like 12% of all the diamonds in the world. The desert floor was basically a treasure chest. Workers literally scooped diamonds out of the sand with jam jars. Talk about a sweet gig!

But of course, it couldn’t last forever. By the 1930s, diamonds were running low and folks moved on to greener (or shinier) pastures nearby.

The last people packed up in 1956, leaving the town empty and ready for some serious desert takeover.

Nowadays, this ghost town is under tight diamond company watch but is huge for tourists and photo fanatics.

Fast forward to 2015 - Melbourne photographer Emma McEvoy sneaks into Kolmanskop (because official visits were a no-go) and snaps some unreal pics of sand literally filling the houses. The outside looks pretty meh, but inside? Bright, peeling wallpaper clashing with golden sand - totally surreal.

Emma even danced around in a dress for her self-portraits, totally owning the deserted vibes. She only decided to make it a series after feeling all the feels stepping inside the ghost town.

She got so inspired she brought a bunch of sand into a soon-to-be-demolished house in Australia and created a pop-up gallery to show off the photos. Talk about dedication to the sand castle vibe!

Emma’s into exploring big themes like nature and human weirdness through her art, but at the heart of it, she just loves snapping cool photos in nature.

So, what do you think? Creepy cool or just plain cool? Have you ever been to Namibia? Would you dare to visit a town being swallowed by sand? Let us know your favorite shot or your best nature photo ever!