Desert of the Skeletons. Diamond Mines Tribes - Planet Doc Full Documentaries
Planet Doc Full Documentaries
2017-04-21
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Documentary "Desert of the Skeletons. Diamond Mines"
The Skeleton Coast marks the limit of a desert which covers a narrow strip, no wider than 200 kilometres, running from southern Angola to the Orange river, the border with South Africa.
Like a coastal belt, the dunes and rocks of the Namib desert cover 250,000 square kilometres along more than 2,000 kilometres of the Atlantic coast of Namibia.
From the air, this mass of orange-coloured sand seems endless. These are the tallest dunes in the world, and below them lies the world's largest diamond deposit. It is a fantastic sight, which could only have been created by nature.
But every year, there is a veritable explosion of life along the Skeleton Coast. In October, the sea-lions come to these coasts to give birth. At this time of year, Cape Cross is home to the largest colony of sea-lions over one hundred thousand of them. Outside the breeding season, males of the species are rarely seen they start to arrive at the end of October, in order to mark out their territory.
The first European to set foot on this coast was the Portuguese, Diego Cao, in 1486. A year later, another Portuguese navigator, Bartolomé Días, with his three ships, sailed into the bay, seeking protection from a storm. After many attempts, he finally managed to land, and named the bay 'Angra Pequena' (small cove)*. But it was not until 1883 that the first stable settlement was established, when the German navigator and merchant, Adolf Lüderitz, reached an agreement with the head of one of the Nama tribes. Lüderitz bought the bay for a relative small amount of money and sixty rifles, in order to set up a whale processing plant here. A few months later, Kanzler Bismark declared Namibia a protectorate of the German Empire.
In 1904, war broke out between the Nama and the Germans, and Lüderitz became the first prisoner of war.
But the real industrial and economic boom came later, with the discovery of the diamond mines. In just four years, the town was transformed from a small, remote fishing port, into one of the most important cities in Southern Africa.
The Skeleton Coast marks the limit of a desert which covers a narrow strip, no wider than 200 kilometres, running from southern Angola to the Orange river, the border with South Africa.
Like a coastal belt, the dunes and rocks of the Namib desert cover 250,000 square kilometres along more than 2,000 kilometres of the Atlantic coast of Namibia.
From the air, this mass of orange-coloured sand seems endless. These are the tallest dunes in the world, and below them lies the world's largest diamond deposit. It is a fantastic sight, which could only have been created by nature.
But every year, there is a veritable explosion of life along the Skeleton Coast. In October, the sea-lions come to these coasts to give birth. At this time of year, Cape Cross is home to the largest colony of sea-lions over one hundred thousand of them. Outside the breeding season, males of the species are rarely seen they start to arrive at the end of October, in order to mark out their territory.
The first European to set foot on this coast was the Portuguese, Diego Cao, in 1486. A year later, another Portuguese navigator, Bartolomé Días, with his three ships, sailed into the bay, seeking protection from a storm. After many attempts, he finally managed to land, and named the bay 'Angra Pequena' (small cove)*. But it was not until 1883 that the first stable settlement was established, when the German navigator and merchant, Adolf Lüderitz, reached an agreement with the head of one of the Nama tribes. Lüderitz bought the bay for a relative small amount of money and sixty rifles, in order to set up a whale processing plant here. A few months later, Kanzler Bismark declared Namibia a protectorate of the German Empire.
In 1904, war broke out between the Nama and the Germans, and Lüderitz became the first prisoner of war.
But the real industrial and economic boom came later, with the discovery of the diamond mines. In just four years, the town was transformed from a small, remote fishing port, into one of the most important cities in Southern Africa.
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