Richest Town in the Country
It's hard to imagine that the Big Hole you come to gape at was once a hill. The museum is a much bigger complex than you'd imagine, really more like an old mining village and, apart from the anticipated old houses, bowling alley and pub, there are things like a transport museum with some of the oddest displays you will ever see (among them a sail-car that actually travelled to Cape Town).
Kimberley in its heyday was the richest town in the country, and the first to have modern innovations like street lights. The hole, now largely filled with rubble and was mined to a depth of around 1 000 m - by pick and shovel. There are a further 17 museums and historic sites scattered around town.
The Start of Kimberley's Big Hole
Interestingly before this attraction in Kimberley was a hole, it was a hill called Colesberg Kopje. A volcanic pipe that was harder than the surrounding Karoo Supergroup rocks was the cause of it, and so it withstood erosion all the better. The pipe of course was originally a stream of superheated lava that punched its way through the earth's mantle.
The lava brought with it, small crystalline lumps that had also been superheated and pressurised form the most alluring of three forms of pure carbon found on earth. Pipe, when it cooled, formed a column of mineral-laden dreams. So the hole is where the hill and pipe were, and it is the biggest ever dug by humankind. Some 22.5 million tonnes of rock were hauled out, creating a 224-m-deep chasm. It yielded 2122 kg of diamonds. Worth… well, a lot.