- Where is located: Kimberley, South Africa;
- How to visit: free of charge, on the viewing platform;
- Visiting hours: 09.00-15.00;
- What else is interesting: a mining museum in the city of Kimberley, shops of processed diamonds
Kimberlite pipe The big hole is a completely depleted diamond deposit, located in the town of Kimberley, in the South African Republic .
Today, the Big Hole of South Africa is considered a property not only of the city, but of the whole country - it is a unique attraction attracting tourists. If you decide to visit the South African Republic, be sure to find the opportunity to visit Kimberley.
History of diamond mining
Diamond mining in South Africa has allowed the country not only to take the lead on the continent, but also to lose the not-so-pleasant "title" "Country of the Third World." According to statistics, South Africa is one of the five largest global suppliers of these precious stones. Also in the rating were such states as:
- Angola;
- Canada;
- Russia;
- Botswana.
The first gem on the territory of present-day South Africa will find in 1866 - as history claims, a diamond was picked up in the river by an Orange boy caring for animals on the nearby farm of Di Kalk. It turned out to be a yellow stone, the size of which exceeded 21 carats.
But the main find is a stone weighing more than 83 carats, found by the children of a farmer who owned the same farm. Diamond was named the beautiful name "Star of South Africa". This was a kind of stimulus for the development of this fishery in South Africa. The first companies began to mine stones in the vicinity of the farm in 1871. As a result, South African diamonds have brought incredible benefits - not for nothing today the country is not only the most developed on the continent, but also continues its progressive development.
Since then, the real diamond fever has swept the country. In total, many deposits were discovered in South Africa, several mines were built, but the main one for a long time was an open mine in Kimberley, the diamonds of which were very clean.
Big hole - the history of the largest mine
The now inactive mine in Kimberley City received a simple but understandable name - the Big Hole. It is officially recognized as the largest career, developed without the use of any technique.
For more than 40 years - until 1914 - about 50 thousand miners worked at the mine, developing it with ordinary picks, crowbars and shovels. With manual labor, people extracted more than 22 million tons of land from the quarry.
During this time, about 2700 kilograms of precious stones were found. In terms of the generally accepted figures, it is 14.5 million carats. Among the huge number of stones were the famous, legendary and truly gigantic, as for diamonds:
- De Beers weighing 428 carats;
- Porter-Rhodes weighing 150 carats and others.
Even outwardly the quarry looks impressive, but even more shocking is the official measurements of the mine:
- the total area exceeds 17 hectares;
- width - almost 500 meters;
- dimensions along the perimeter - 1600 meters;
- depth - 240 meters, but later on the bottom was poured a bit of rock, which reduced the depth to 215 meters.
At present, at the bottom of the Great Hole, a lake with a depth of up to 40 meters was formed.
It is interesting that, as the researchers established, approximately 100 million years ago there was a volcano at the site of the mine - the source of the lava was located approximately at a depth of 97 kilometers. This is what promoted the formation of diamonds in this place - high temperature and high pressure in the ground contributed to certain processes that contribute to the appearance of precious stones.
The Modernity of Kimberley
Currently, Kimberly is a modern, developed city. It has everything for a comfortable life:
- well-maintained streets;
- ennobled parks;
- a lot of hotels and hotels;
- cultural centers, museums.
Naturally, tourists are primarily attracted by the Great Hole, to which and around which excursions are organized. For example, specially for the transportation of tourists to the main attraction of the city, rails for trams were laid. At the edge of the former mine, a safe and secure viewing platform was created.
Also in the city there is a specialized mining museum, in which the history of the diamond and gold crafts is presented in detail. That is, even now, after more than a hundred years after the closure of the mine, it continues to bring profit to the city and its inhabitants - only now as a tourist attraction.
Features of buying diamonds in the Republic of South Africa
Despite the fact that diamond mining in South Africa has been going on for almost 150 years, it is still possible to find unique specimens in mines and mines.
So, a few years ago in one of the oldest mines of Cullinan was found an incredible gem - its weight was 232 carats. According to experts, the value of a diamond can reach $ 15 million.
However, it must be remembered that rough stones are strictly prohibited for export from the country. If you are interested in buying diamonds in South Africa, then you need to go to the profile, that is, jewelry shops or shopping centers, located next to the mines, mines, where often organized tours.
Buying precious stones in the country is really profitable - they are somewhat cheaper. At customs, you must show the store certificate for the jewelry you bought. When leaving, you can apply for Tax Free and return 14% of the purchase amount. By the way, tourists are faced with severe punishment for the removal of rough diamonds from South Africa - so do not even try to deceive the authorities.
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