Kimberley - Big Hole / Kimberley Mine Museum

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longer possible. Later the work was increasingly mechanized, the first winding tower being installed in 1892.

On the west side of the Big Hole is a museum village of almost 50 buildings (some original and some reproductions), representing Kimberley as it was at the time of the diamond rush. Some of the houses, furnished in the style of the time, can be entered. The first church built in Kimberley was the German Lutheran church of St Martin (1875). Kimberley's oldest house, however, dates only from 1877; it was built of prefabricated parts imported from Britain: a residence of extraordinary luxury at a time when everyone else was living in tents. The "Diggers' Rest" is a reconstruction of one of the 128 bars which the town boasted in its early days. Other houses, shops and workshops line a cobbled street. In the Mining Hall is a collection of photographs and documents from diamond rush days. Opposite it is the Diamond Hall, the exhibits in which include a 616 carat diamond, one of the largest uncut diamonds in the world, and the Eureka, the first diamond discovered in South Africa.