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As miners arrived to Kimberly in their thousands, the hill disappeared, and became known as the Big Hole. From mid-July 1871 to 1914, 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels, yielding 2,722 kg of diamonds. The Big Hole has a surface of 17 hectares (42 acres) and is 463 metres wide. It was excavated to a depth of 240 m, but then partially infilled with debris reducing its depth to about 215 m; since then it has accumulated water to a depth of 40 m leaving 175 m visible. Beneath the surface, the Kimberly Mine underneath the Big Hole was mined to a depth of 1097 metres.

A popular local myth claims that it is the largest hand-dug hole on the world, however Jagersfontein Mine appears to hold that record. There is currently an effort in progress to register the Big Hole as a World Heritage Site.

Text from Wikipedia