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Little Namaqualand
Namaqualand (Khoikhoi: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoi people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into two portions – Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the north. Little Namaqualand is within the Namakwa District Municipality, forming part of Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is geographically the largest district in the country, spanning over 26,836 km2. A typical municipality is Kamiesberg Local Municipality. The semidesert Succulent Karoo region experiences hot summers, sparse rainfall, and cold winters.Discover South Africa: Your Online Travel Directory. Discover Namakwa. Great Namaqualand, in the Karas Region of Namibia, is sparsely populated by the Nama, a Khoikhoi people who have traditionally inhabited the Namaqualand region. Tourism The area’s landscape ranges from an unexploited coasta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doorn River Waterfall, Northern Cape
Doorn is a town in the municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. The town is famous for being the final residence of Wilhelm II. History In a document from 885 to 896 the settlement is called "Thorhem", a dwelling of Thor, the god of thunder. Vikings quartered at Dorestad (now Wijk bij Duurstede) reportedly referred to the place as Thorhem, as the god of thunder was worshipped there. Archaeological excavations on a moor at the estate of Hoog Moersbergen, north of Doorn, have revealed evidence of a pagan sacrificial site. Later, the settlement of Thorhem became part of the homestead known as Villa Thorhem. Around 1200, this homestead was in the possession of a provost of the Bishopric of Utrecht. One of his successors built a castle in the 14th century – now known as Huis Doorn – and established the Maartenskerk ("St. Martin's Church") around 1200. The church was extended in the 15th century and later passed into Protestan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biodiversity Hotspot
A biodiversity hotspot is a ecoregion, biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the concept was revised following thorough analysis by Myers and others into "Hotspots: Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions" and a paper published in the journal ''Nature'', both in 2000. To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot on Myers' 2000 edition of the hotspot map, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (more than 0.5% of the world's total) as Endemism, endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70% of its primary vegetation. Globally, 36 zones qualify under this definition. These sites support nearly 60% of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species, with a high share of those species as endemics. Some of these hots ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hondeklipbaai
Hondeklip Bay (, which translates as ''dog stone bay'') is a coastal village in the Namakwa district of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It lies about 95 km south west of the district capital Springbok. This village was originally used as a harbor to export copper ore from the mines around Springbok but was later surpassed by Port Nolloth, which had a safer harbor as well as a railway line. Today Hondeklip Bay is a popular regional holiday destination and serves the fishing and diamond-mining community. Holiday accommodation ranges from camping at the municipal caravan park to self-catering chalets at thHonnehokke Resort Attractions include ship wrecks like the and the Aristea which ran aground in 2003 and 1945 respectively. In July 2016, the Jahleel started breaking up and split in two. For tourism information, visit the website. The mouth of the Spoeg River is located about 18 km SSE down the coast from Hondeklip Bay. There are caves of archaeologica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Nolloth
Port Nolloth is a town and seaport in the Namaqualand region on the northwestern coast of South Africa, northwest of Springbok. It is the seat of the Richtersveld Local Municipality. The port was previously a transshipment point for copper from the Okiep mines and diamonds from the Namaqua coast. Since the 1970s, the main seagoing activities have been fishing and small-vessel tourism. Today the town is a commercial hub with several holiday homes and a caravan park at the adjacent McDougalls Bay. It is also a gateway to the Richtersveld National Park, located to the north along the Orange River. History The bay where the port is located was known by the indigenous Nama people as ''Aukwatowa'' ('Where the water took away the old man'). Its location was marked by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias on his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487. It was the last landfall he sighted before a wild storm blew his ship off course and out to sea for 30 days. The land surrounding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Onseepkans
Onseepkans is a small settlement on the banks of the Orange River in Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is a border post with Namibia for traffic between Pofadder in South Africa and Keetmanshoop in Namibia. The name either originated from a combination of three Nama words: ‘tconsiep’ (an elbow projecting into the river), ‘nias’ (a rocky surface), and ‘tcaans’ (thorntrees), or a derivative of a nama word that means 'watering place for cattle'. In 1909, a prospector by the name of Edwells settled in the area. The land was eventually bought from him in 1916 by a group of farmers, who saw potential for irrigation in the area. Ecotourism has been growing ever since the establishment of a riverside campsite and various farm cottages. It is also the entry point for visits to the Ritchie Falls, the second highest waterfall on the Orange River, after the Augrabies Falls. The Ritchie Falls are in a pristine wilderness area, only accessible after a two-day hike or by raft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vioolsdrif
Vioolsdrif is a village on the Orange River in the north-western Namaqualand area of South Africa. Origin of name The name in Afrikaans means 'the ford (shallow river crossing) of the violin'. It is reportedly named after Jan Viool ("John Violin"), who is said to have played the fiddle in these parts in the nineteenth century. Some say he was a Nama man, who used to guide ox-wagons across the ford. An accomplished player, he would fiddle away merrily on the river bank while waiting for wagons to arrive. These claims await elaboration. Geography A road bridge here on the N7 national road links South Africa with Namibia and the town harbours the South African border post. At the other end of the bridge is the small Namibian village of Noordoewer (meaning "north bank" in Afrikaans). The area is profoundly arid and the crossing is overlooked by steep and spectacular sandstone cliffs hundreds of metres in height. In general, the surrounding region is almost unpopulated. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Oppenheimer
Sir Ernest Oppenheimer (22 May 1880 – 25 November 1957) was a South African diamond and gold mining entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist, who controlled De Beers and founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. Career Ernest Oppenheimer was born in Friedberg, German Empire, to a German-Jewish family. He was the son of Edward Oppenheimer, a cigar merchant, and his wife, Nanette (née Hirschhorn) Oppenheimer. He began his working life at 17, when he entered Dunkelsbuhler & Company, a diamond brokerage in London. His efforts impressed his employer and in 1902, at the age of 22, he was sent to South Africa to represent the company as a buyer in Kimberley, of which he went on to become the mayor from 1912 to 1915. In this role, he helped raise the manpower for the Kimberley Regiment for service during World War I. He became great friends with William Lincoln Honnold, an American engineer and chairman of Transvaal Coal Trust, Brakpan Mines, Springs Mines and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Bay, Northern Cape
Alexander Bay () is a town in the extreme north-west of South Africa. It is located on the southern bank of the Orange River mouth. It was named for Sir James Alexander, who was the first person to map the area whilst on a Royal Geographical Society expedition into Namibia in 1836. (It is mistakenly believed by many locals that it was he who first established commercial copper mining in the area.) With diamonds being discovered along the West Coast in 1925, Alexander Bay was established to service the mining industry. The town of Oranjemund lies on the northern bank of the river, which forms the international border with Namibia. The two towns are linked by the Ernest Oppenheimer Bridge, named for Ernest Oppenheimer in 1951. The town is served by Alexander Bay Airport. History Diamonds After diamonds were discovered along this coast in 1925 by Dr Hans Merensky, Alexander Bay became known for its mining activities. The resulting diamond rush led to the Diamond Coas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oranjemund
Oranjemund (Dutch for ''"Mouth of Orange"'') is a diamond mining town in the ǁKaras Region of the extreme southwest of Namibia, on the northern bank of the Orange River mouth at the border with South Africa. It had a population of 7,736 people in 2023. History The entire area along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean was proclaimed restricted (the '' Sperrgebiet'') in 1908 due to the occurrence of alluvial diamonds. Since then, the public was forbidden entry. In 1927 diamonds were found south of the Orange River in South Africa. Hans Merensky and other prospectors assumed that the northern shore on South West African territory would also have diamonds. A year later they conducted an expedition from Lüderitz to the mouth of the Orange River, where they found rich deposits on the north bank of the river and the adjacent northern coastline and established a tented camp from which Oranjemund had developed. Due to the Great Depression, diamond mining was not undertaken until 1935, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insoluble in water. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of carbon at Standard temperature and pressure, room temperature and pressure, but diamond is metastable and converts to it at a negligible rate under those conditions. Diamond has the highest Scratch hardness, hardness and thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are used in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools. Because the arrangement of atoms in diamond is extremely rigid, few types of impurity can contaminate it (two exceptions are boron and nitrogen). Small numbers of lattice defect, defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) can color ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Beers
The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial and coastal mining. It operates in 35 countries, with mining taking place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Canada. It also has an artisanal mining business, Gemfair, which operates in Sierra Leone. From its inception in 1888 until the start of the 21st century, De Beers controlled 80% to 85% of rough diamond distribution and was considered a monopoly. By 2000, the company's control of the world diamond supply decreased to 63%. The company was founded in 1888 by British businessman Cecil Rhodes, who was financed by the South African diamond magnate Alfred Beit and the London-based N M Rothschild & Sons bank. In 1926, Ernest Oppenheimer, a German immigrant to Britain and later South Africa who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koiingnaas
Koingnaas is a village in Namakwa District Municipality in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located 65 km south of Kleinzee. Established in 1970, Koingnaas was once a flourishing diamond-mining town and satellite town to Kleinzee. Since De Beers The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pi ...' departure, the population has fallen rapidly from its peak of about 1,000 inhabitants. References Populated places in the Kamiesberg Local Municipality Populated places established in 1970 1970 establishments in South Africa {{NorthernCape-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
