In the Sperrgebiet, or ‘forbidden area’ outside of Luderitz lies the abandoned mining town of Kolmanskop. You need a permit to visit, as Rob and I did on our 2006 Namibia trip in the Landy, but it’s worth it: here’s a small town, complete with bakery and shop and miners’ houses, slowly being infiltrated and swallowed by the desert. It’s one of those places that make you think about human endeavour in a wider, more geological and philosophical perspective, and it makes for some good photos.
Here is a baker’s dozen.
The View From Here 
When you have a second, please discuss the forbidden zone. Why, if it is forbidden, do they make permits available to at least some?
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Ah! It’s the diamond area, where diamonds lie just beneath the ground, and sometimes on top of it. You are forbidden from getting out of your car, on the whole national route through the Sperrgebiet. Kolmanskop, which as I mentioned requires a permit, is strictly security controlled and fenced off.
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