Lüderitz

Port on Lüderitz Bay, in Karas region of Namibia; population (2001) 13,300. It is a centre for diamond mining and fishing, including crayfish, white fish, and pilchards. The town, formerly a German possession, was named after a German merchant who acquired land here in 1883. The town's German architecture is notable.

A few kilometres away from present-day Lüderitz the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Diaz made his first landing in southern Africa in 1486. Lüderitz was the site of the first settlement by Germans in southwest Africa in 1883. During World War I the town was captured by South African forces and in 1920 became part of the Namibian territory mandated to South Africa by the League of Nations.