The Big Hole is the largest hand-dug excavation on earth — a vast pit cut into the hard rock of the Northern Cape over four decades of frenzied diamond mining. Standing at the viewing platform on the edge, the scale takes a moment to register. The hole is roughly 800 metres across at the surface and drops away into a flooded blue-green pool that fills the lowest section, eerie and still in the heat.
The adjacent Kimberley Mine Museum reconstructs the original mining camp and rush-era town with period buildings moved from their original sites across the city. The De Beers boardroom, a Victorian pub, the original digger's canteen, and various mining structures have been reassembled around the pit edge and are open to walk through. Inside the main museum building, a diamond collection includes the original Eureka Diamond — the first diamond found in South Africa — along with displays explaining the geology of kimberlite pipes. Allow at least two hours for the whole complex.