Kimberley Travel Guide

Kimberley is located in the centre of South Africa, which means that it's pretty far of from anything else, Durban is 845 km, Cape Town almost 1000 and Johannesburg still a good 500. Kimberley is directly associated with the diamond trade. Diamonds brought Kimberley its wealth and today they bring Kimberley visitors who want to know more about these precious stones. Kimberley is an ideal place for this.

Although the frenetic activity, the extraordinary web of pully cables leading to a six-storey staging platform and the sight of up to 30 000 miners working 3 600 claims over 17ha have faded into the sepia of memories of photographic archives, memories of the Kimberley tent-town's halcyon days still linger.

Many old buildings, museums and one of South Africa's most important art galleries lend an historic ambience to the modern city that thrust its way to prominence through the heat, dust, flies and fever of the diamond rush. A partial reconstruction of the original 'rush town' - or open-air museum - alongside the incredible Big Hole, the largest hand-dug excavation in the world, offers visitors insights in the history of the Diamond industry.