Coolest Ghost Towns in Africa

Last updated July 4th, 2023.

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Ghost towns are always beguiling places. They seem to call to our sense of what it means to be human. There are some very well-known ghost towns round the world, not least Chernobyl in modern-day Ukraine and Oradour-sur-Glane in France. Given its size, it’s hardly surprising Africa has its fair share of abandoned cities too. These are my picks for the coolest ghost towns in Africa.

Kolmanskop, Namibia

On the face of it, Kolmanskop is a ridiculous place for a town of any size. Though just a few miles from the Namibian port city of Lüderitz, it lies pretty much slap bang in the middle of uninterrupted desert.

The answer to the mystery of this ghost town is diamonds. Prospectors were drawn to the region in the early 1900s in search of the precious gems. Once upon a time you could just pick them off the surface of the ground.

As you might imagine, a town soon developed. And since the majority of those who pitched up were German colonists, its structures took on a distinctly Bavarian flair.

But when the diamonds became harder and harder to find, the townsfolk slowly drifted away. Kolmanskop was allowed to be swallowed up by advancing sand dunes. However, the town is still owned by diamond company De Beers, who keep a close eye on what goes on.

The town is therefore one of the only ways to explore Namibia’s Sperrgebiet, or Forbidden Zone. Generally off limits, the Sperrgebiet is patrolled by guards armed with an assortment of weapons and not a lot to lose from firing them.

Gede, Kenya

On the other side of the continent, Gede was only rediscovered in the 1920s. Dated to beginnings around the thirteenth century, the city state is thought to have thrived until at least the 1600s.

Lying on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast, it’s likely the city was involved in the ancient trade routes that extended north, south and east.

For still unknown reasons, Gede was eventually abandoned, and then consumed by the trees of the Arabuko Sokoke forest.

Today this forest is one of the last remaining areas of native coastal woodland, and one of the last habitats of the sengi, or elephant shrew.

Stay quiet as you explore the carved Swahili stonework of Gede’s mosques and palaces and you might see these shy and highly endangered animals for yourself.

Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe

Just like Gede, the origins of Great Zimbabwe are sadly lost to history. However, it’s presumed that the city in Zimbabwe’s south east was the capital of an important Shona kingdom.

Archaeological evidence suggests that construction of the city began around about the time of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It lived on for several centuries culminating in an area of almost eight kilometres squared (three square miles).

Mentioned by a Portuguese captain in 1531, it wasn’t truly investigated until the 1870s. How no one thought much of dry-stone walls eleven metres high is anyone’s guess. It may, sadly, have been the result of the white minority refusing to accept any such structure could have been built by indigenous people.

Today Great Zimbabwe is rightly recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was important enough for the country to take its name after independence. The Zimbabwe bird carvings discovered here also appear on the country’s flag.

Kilamba, Angola

Settlements don’t have to have been lost through time, as Kilamba in Angola demonstrates. This city was built recently to great fanfare by Chinese contractors less than 17 miles outside of the Luanda.

The aim was to provide new homes for up to 500,000 people to reduce crowding in the country’s ever-growing capital.

Walking its quiet streets, Kilamba seems rather fine. There’s none of the traffic of elsewhere in the city, and the apartments blocks have a sort of China-meets-Portugal feel.

But very few have ever been occupied, with prices just too high and distances to central Luanda too great for those reliant on untrustworthy public transport.

Kilamba very much runs the risks of becoming a real-life white elephant, while people remain in desperate need of good housing nearby.

Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania

Kilwa Kisiwani lies a short distance off the coast of Tanzania on an island of the same name. Although there’s a small community nearby, it’s the ancient city of Kilwa Kisiwani which forms my final African ghost town pick.

A mighty city state during the Middle Ages, particularly the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, Kilwa was inhabited by up to 10,000 people.

Rich enough to use fabrics and ceramics from as far afield as China, the most impressive remaining structure has to be the Gerezani Fort. Sitting on the island’s coastline, it’s built in line with Omani forts of the era. It’s impressive for both its height and (modern) Swahili doors, although it is suffering from erosion on its seaward side.

This coral stone fort sits between the Makutani Palace and the Great Mosque. The latter is one of the Swahili coasts earliest surviving mosques, and is around 800 years old. It’s capped by several surviving domes many still incorporating blue and white ceramic decoration.

To visit Kilwa, you’ll first need to make a stop at the tourist information office at Kilwa Masoko on the mainland. You can also arrange a guide here with (if you’re like me) no prior warning.

The coolest ghost towns in Africa

If this has piqued your interest in all things abandoned, you might also want to check out the Roman ruins of Libya and Tunisia. Alternatively, you might consider making a visit to South Africa’s Eureka City, another former mining town now part of Mountainlands Nature Reserve.