Kimberley — South Africa’s Jewel of a City

Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, but in 1866 in was just a dusty patch of veld.
Then, in the area of Hopetown, a farmer’s son found South Africa’s first diamond. Shortly after a rough diamond weighing (83.5 carats) was discovered by a Griqua cattle-herder, and subsequently named the Star of South Africa.
More diamonds were discovered near Colesberg on the farm Vooruitzicht belonging to the De Beers Brothers in 1871.These discoveries sparked a full-scale diamond rush, and soon hopeful diggers had descended on the area from all corners of the world.
Some of the richest people of the era, including Ernest Oppenheimer, Cecil John Rhodes, Alfred Beit, the Barnato brothers and Solly Joel among them, made their fortunes on the diamond fields of Kimberley, before moving on to the gold fields of Johannesburg,
The city of Kimberley mushroomed into existence, and grew so rapidly, that on September 2nd, 1882, Kimberley became the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States to install electric street lights. The first Stock Exchange in Africa was built in Kimberley, opening in 1881.
Whilst the earliest diamond finds were all on, or close to the surface, gradually the miners had to dig deeper to find them, which resulted in the famous Big Hole of Kimberley, which eventually reached a depth of 240m.
By August 14th, 1914, over 22 million tons of earth had been excavated, yielding 3,000 kilograms (14,504,566 carats) of diamonds. When active mining ceased at the mine, it was considered the largest hand-dug excavation in the world.
According to popular legend this is the deepest hole ever excavated by hand, but there are other contenders for this particular crown, as the hand-dug portions of Jagersfontein and Bultfontein, but by 2005 this claim had still not been
In May 2004 a submission was made to have Kimberley’s Big Hole recognized as a UNESCO world Heritage Site.

Jagersfontein Mine
The site of the Jagersfontein mine, which is close to the city of Bloemfontein, in the Free State, has produced about 9.6 million carats (1,900kg) of diamonds, including 2 of the 10 biggest diamonds ever discovered,
About 9.6 million carats (1,900 kg) of jewel-quality diamonds were mined here until it’s closure in May 1971.