Otavi is the first of the three 'triangle' towns you reach when driving north from Windhoek on the B1. It is also the smallest one. In the past it was an important mining centre and the scene of many feuds between the Ovambos, Hereros and Bushmen. Work on a narrow-gauge railway began in November 1903 and was completed in August 1906, after being interrupted by the Herero-German war. The railway was built to carry copper ore to Swakopmund. The German colonial company which ran the mine and built the railway was the Otavi Minen-und Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (OMEG); there are some excellent photographs of the railway on show in the OMEG museum house in Swakopmund. Major mining operations continue today, but they are based in and around Tsumeb, leaving Otavi Mountains are lead, vanadium, cadmium and zinc. Just outside of the town is an Amethyst mine; this is worth visiting to see samples in their natural state.
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