The Big Hole is touted as the largest man-made crater in the world.

Picture a hole in the ground: one mile deep, measuring nearly one mile all the way around. Now, picture this hole swarming with 30,000 loud-mouthed miners, each working around the clock to clear rubble and rock from that gaping hole.

This is pretty much what the Kimberley Mine - nicknamed the “Big Hole” - looked like in the early 1900s. Before closing in 1914, the mine produced over three and a half tons of diamond; making many people very rich.

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Text: Adam Sewall; Image: Meredith Claire