Diamond miners discovered a 500-year-old Portuguese shipwreck in the Namib Desert.
In August 2024, the Jasper House Museum in Oranjemund, Namibia, unveiled a new exhibition dedicated to the artifacts recovered from the Bom Jesus, a 500-year-old Portuguese shipwreck discovered in the Namib Desert.
The Bom Jesus set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on March 7, 1533, intending to reach the Indies. However, the ship never made it to its destination due to a storm that beached it on the southern coast of Namibia. For centuries, the fate of the Bom Jesus remained a mystery until its wreck was uncovered in 2008 by diamond miners working for De Beers.
The miners had drained seawater near the coast over an area of 200 meters in diameter, leading to the unexpected discovery of a large wooden carcass resting under layers of sand.
