Lüderitz, Namibia

Namibia is on Africa’s southwest coast. The country is largely arid, but encompasses broad geographical variations and is usually divided into four regions: the Namib Desert and Coastal Plains along the coast; the eastward-sloping Central Plateau; the Kalahari sands along the Botswana and South African borders; and the dense bushveld of the northeastern Kavango and Caprivi regions. The northern border is flush with rivers that provide water to most of Namibia.

This harbor town in southern Namibia lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. Founded in 1883, the area was purchased from the local Nama chief by Heinrich Vogelsang on behalf of Adolf Lüderitz, a hanseat from Bremen in Germany. Before the discovery of diamonds here in 1909, Lüderitz was mostly a trading post, with some of the economy based on fishing and guano-harvesting. When the diamonds were discovered, the area enjoyed a huge burst of popularity and prosperity but today diamonds are found mostly elsewhere and offshore and the area has returned to a more subdued economic climate. The harbor, with its shallow rock bottom, made it unusable for modern ships and led to Walvis Bay becoming the center of the Namibian shipping industry. Recently, the addition of a new quay has allowed larger fishing vessels to dock at Lüderitz. The town is attempting to lure more tourism to the area with a re-developed waterfront attractive to shoppers. The town’s colonial architecture has long been a draw as well as the wildlife which includes seals, penguins, flamingos and ostriches. The coastline is recognized by global conservation groups as one of the most important coastal seabird breeding areas. Mercury Island, Ichaboe Island, Halifax Island and the Possession Islands support the entire Namibian breeding population of Cape gannets, 96% of the Namibian population of the endangered African penguin, and nearly one quarter of the global breeding population of crowned cormorants. Approximately 80% of the global population of the endangered Bank cormorant breeds on Mercury Island and in the Ichaboe Islands. Outside of Lüderitz lies the ghost town of Kolmanskop, a previously bustling diamond town now abandoned and fighting a constant struggle against being buried under the swirling sands of the Namib Desert.