In 1871, diamond deposits found on a hillock dubbed Colesberg Kopje on the farm Vooruitzicht, owned by the De Beers brothers, led to a mad scramble for fame and fortune and the world’s largest, hand-dug excavation, the colossal Kimberley Mine or Big Hole.
By 1872, the tents and shacks of more than 50 000 feverish diggers crowded New Rush, the mining town surrounding the hillock. Overcrowding, insufficient water, unsanitary conditions, disease, heat, dust and flies were ever present problems in the mining town’s early days.
In the fledgling city’s many gambling dens, card- and loan sharks thrived on a diet of other people’s blood, sweat and tears. The stakes were high and the ruthless ruled as fortunes were made and lost in a day. Some found only despair and heartbreak, but others struck it rich.
Spacious homes began to rise from the dust and, in 1873, the town was renamed Kimberley, after the Earl of Kimberley, British Secretary of State for the Colonies. Despite the town’s severe dose of diamond dementia, it was, by 1900, a prosperous town. Its complex, higgledypiggledy web of roads is a topographic reminder of a chaotic past. And not one, but five big holes, and a number of smaller mines, had been gouged out of the earth, reaching ever deeper into its bluish, diamond-bearing Kimberlite pipes! The Kimberley Mine was closed in 1914. Covering 17ha, it reached a depth of 1 097m and yielded three tons of diamonds. A bawdy shanty town born of a desperation and greed redolent of the American Wild West, Kimberley swiftly donned a mantle of architectural elegance.
Today, it is a prosperous, thriving metropolis with Victorian buildings that complement the more modern buildings of the CBD. Lacking the furious pace of South Africa’s larger urban giants, it is perhaps the country’s most innovative town. Home of our first flying school, our first stock exchange and the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to install electric street-lighting, it is mining a brilliant future from a glorious past. |
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i Tourist Information |
Diamantveld Visitor Centre
121 Bultfontein Rd
PO Box 1976, Kimberley 8300
Tel 053 832 7298
Fax 053 832 7211
Email:dikgang.stock@fbdm.co.za |
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Featured Accommodation
| 1. |  | | Estate Private Hotel | | | Tel:(053) 832 2668 Cell +27 83 261 5810 | | Hotels and Lodges, Kimberley | |
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| 2. |  | | Aletheim Guest House | | | Tel:053 8321907 | | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 3. | | | Ambassador Lodge | | | Tel:053 831 7937 | | Hotels and Lodges, Kimberley | |
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| 4. | | | Aquarius Self Catering | | | Tel:053 831 2878 | | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 5. | | | Barney Barnato B&B | | Tel:053 831 5628
083 626 1234 | | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 6. | | | Cecil John Rhodes Guest House | | | Tel:053 830 2500 | | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 7. |  | | Edgerton House | | | Tel:053 831 1150 / 076 466 0665 | | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 8. |  | | El Toro Cottage | | Tel:083 - 265 4795 / 053 - 861 4983
| | Self Catering, Kimberley | |
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| 9. |  | | Five Acres Guest House | | Tel:053 861 1179
Cell: 082 465 1176 | | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 10. | | | HenChe Self-Catering | | | Tel:053 832 6860 | | Self Catering, Kimberley | |
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| 11. |  | | Kingston Game Ranch and Kolobe Adventures | | Tel:+27 (0)53 833 7083
Cell +27 (0)82 870 8803
or +27 (0)82 217 4774 | | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 12. |  | | Protea Hotel Kimberley | | | Tel:053 802 8200 | | Hotels and Lodges, Kimberley | |
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| 13. |  | | REPA Guest House | | Tel:053 861 3132
Cell 079 517 0022 | | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 14. | | | Spitskop Lodge | | | Tel:053 631 4221 | | Hotels and Lodges, Kimberley | |
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| 15. | | | Sundowner Lodge | | | Tel:053 831 1145 | | Hotels and Lodges, Kimberley | |
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| 16. | | | The Kimberley Club | | | Tel:053 832 4224 | | Hotels and Lodges, Kimberley | |
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| 17. |  | | Bateleur Guest House | | Tel:053 - 861 1022 Cell:082 446 8107
| | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 18. |  | | Belgravia B&B | | Tel:+ 27 53 832 8368
Cell: +27 82 224 3605 | | Guest Houses and Farms, B&B, Kimberley | |
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| 19. |  | | Bishops Lodge | | | Tel:+27 (53) 831 7876 | | Hotels and Lodges, Kimberley | |
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| 20. |  | | Carrington Lodge | | | Tel:053 831 6448
Cell: 082 876 3990 | | Hotels and Lodges, Kimberley | |
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 | The Big Hole
The Kimberley Mine site started on or about 16 July 1871 and by 14 August 1914 all mining activities... read more |
  | Modder River | Location: 39km, SW on N12
Modder River lies south of Kimberley, near the confluence of the Riet ... read more |
 | Barkly West | Location: 32km, NW on R31
The discovery of diamonds at Klipdrift on the Vaal River in 1869 drew ... read more |
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