There’s far more to the Big Hole than the information printed in tourist brochures.
Image: Danie van der Lith
YOU CAN'T talk about Kimberley without mentioning the Big Hole. It’s our most famous landmark, a giant scar in the earth that somehow still carries with it the sparkle of the diamonds once buried beneath its surface. But if you dig a little deeper - pun intended - there’s far more to the Big Hole than the statistics printed in tourist brochures. It’s not just about the size of the crater or the number of carats extracted. The Big Hole tells a story of dreams, hardship, and the beginnings of a city that still echoes with the footsteps of those who came here chasing fortune.
Let’s start with the basics. The Big Hole is considered the largest hand-dug excavation in the world. Between 1871 and 1914, around 22.5 million tonnes of rock were removed by pick, shovel, and sheer human determination. More than 14,000,000 carats of diamonds were mined. Imagine that - thousands of people working under a blazing sun, shoulder to shoulder, risking life and limb in the hopes of striking it rich.
But what makes the Big Hole truly special isn't just its size. It’s what it represents: the birth of Kimberley. Before the diamonds, this place was just open veld. But as the legend goes, a young boy named Erasmus Jacobs picked up a shiny stone on the banks of the Orange River in 1866. That stone turned out to be a 21.25-carat diamond, and it set off one of the world’s greatest diamond rushes. Soon, thousands of people from across the globe made their way to what would eventually become Kimberley, each one hoping to change their fortune.
And change it they did - but not always for the better. Life on the diamond fields was rough. Conditions were brutal. Disease, crime, and back-breaking labour were everyday realities. But in the middle of that hardship, something else was born - resilience. Community. A spirit of hustle that Kimberley has never really lost.
Even today, if you stand at the edge of the Big Hole, you can feel it. It’s not just a pit in the ground. It’s a monument to human tenacity. You can almost hear the clang of steel on stone, the shouts of traders on the dusty streets of old Kimberley, and the whispered prayers of miners deep underground. It’s a place that changed the course of South African history, playing a key role in the founding of De Beers, one of the world’s most powerful mining companies. It shaped economies, built fortunes, and brought people together from all corners of the globe.
And it gave us a city. Our city. Yes, we have everyday struggles. Our water supply is unreliable; our municipality sometimes lets us down and is slow to react. We have to dodge potholes as we drive, and the power sometimes goes off, but yet we cannot deny that Kimberley is our home, and we love our home. We might have different challenges than the founders had, but we prevail the same, stronger and better each day.
Today, Kimberley is quieter than it was during the rush, but the legacy of the Big Hole still lives in our museums, our architecture, and the stories our grandparents tell. The past is literally beneath our feet and, for some, on their left hand.
Someone once said that Table Mountain makes the city of Cape Town, but the people of Kimberley make our city.
So next time someone asks what’s special about Kimberley, tell them it’s not just the Big Hole - it’s the people, the stories, and the courage it took to dig deep, in more ways than one.