Big Hole

What makes Kimberley's Big Hole even more intriguing is that it is totally man-made; it is the world's largest hand-dug excavation.

It all started in 1866, when a man named Erasmus Jacobs discovered what he thought was a brilliant stone on the Orange River's banks. To make a long tale short, it was later sold for £500 in London after being judged to be a 21.25-carat diamond. After two more diamonds were discovered in the region, a diamond rush erupted, with thousands more miners arriving. Picks and shovels yielded 2 722 kilos of diamonds, and the hill vanished in a whirlwind of prospection.

The underground mine at Kimberley is 1097 meters deep. Underground operations at the Kimberley mines were just recently ceased, and the Big Hole has been massively upgraded to become a tourist attraction.

Visitors can now go underground in a recreation of a mineshaft from the time period, watch a film about diamonds in Kimberley, visit an exhibition center, see a diamond display, use the new viewing platform to get a bird's eye view of the Big Hole from above, and visit the Old Town to see Kimberley in its prime.

Location: Kimberley