Travel Guide

Kimberley is the capital of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Amongst other things, it is famous for its Big Hole, the world's largest hand-dug excavation that was created when thousands of people searched for diamonds at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. By 14 August 1914 22,7 billion kg of rock had been excavated, yielding 2722 kg of diamonds. The history of the town of Kimberley started with the first diamond finds in South Africa in 1867. The farm boy Erasmus Jacobs had discovered an unusually glittering stone and brought it home for his sisters to play with. His parents had it analysed and identified as a diamond. But the big diamond rush only broke out three years later, when a whole handful of such stones was found on the farm Zandfontein of Nicolaas de Beers. More than 30,000 people came to the area, and the de Beers were happy to sell their otherwise not very profitable farm for 6,300 pounds. Everywhere people feverishly started to dig for diamonds. The richest finds were made on the Co...
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