“You don’t expect to find a swimming pool in the middle of the desert,” says French photographer Romain Veillon of his new series of photos called The Sands of Time. Unless, of course, you’re talking about Kolmanskop, a German diamond mining town that sprang up in the Namibian desert in the early 20th century.In its heyday, Veillon says, Kolmanskop boasted not just a swimming pool, but also a gymnasium, school, casino, ballroom and even a hospital. The hospital supposedly had the first X-ray machine ever used on the African continent. Of course, Veillon notes, “It wasn’t strictly for healing patients. It was used to see if workers swallowed diamonds during the day.”