Ruin sights in Africa
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Hippo Regius
The ruins of the ancient city of Hippo Regius, also known as Hippone, are among the most evocative in Algeria, stretched across a rolling site, full of flowers, rosemary, olive trees, birds and sheep, and overlooked by the imposing, colonial-era Basilica of St Augustine. You enter from what was the seafront, the water having receded several hundred metres over the millennia. There is a good plan of the site by the entrance. It is worth climbing the small hill to the museum, before seeing the ruins. The ground floor contains a good collection of sculpture in the Salle des Bustes, including the Emperor Vespasian found in the forum. The star piece of the museum, the unique…
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Mansourah
Just under 3km from the Mechouar, Mansourah – the victorious – never lived up to its name. It started as the camp where Merinid sultan Abou Yacoub settled his army in 1299, when he besieged Tlemcen. The siege lasted eight years, during which the camp became a residence, complete with palace and mosque. Just as the city was about to fall, the sultan was murdered by one of his slaves and the Merinids retreated. Remains of the 12m-high walls that protected the camp stretch across the olive groves far into the distance. The main sight here, though, is the remains of the massive mosque, rebuilt by Sultan Abou el-Hassan of Fès when he came to besiege Tlemcen in 1335. The…
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Kunduchi Ruins
Just north of Kunduchi Wet 'n' Wild are the overgrown Kunduchi ruins which include the remnants of a late 15th-century mosque as well as Arabic graves from the 18th or 19th centuries, with some well-preserved pillar tombs. Fragments of Chinese pottery found here testify to ancient trading links between this part of Africa and the Orient. Arrange a guide with your hotel - it's not safe to walk on your own to the ruins, as there have been muggings.
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Masonic Temple
The now ruined Masonic Temple was once Monrovia's major landmark. Since most Masons were Americo-Liberian descendants of the original settlers, the Temple was a prominent symbol of previous regimes, and was vandalised after the 1980 coup when the Masonic Order was banned. A grand master's throne from the temple, once used by William Tubman, sits on dusty display at the National Museum.
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Mbweni Ruins
Mbweni Ruins was the site of a 19th-century UMCA mission station that was used as a settlement for freed slaves. In addition to the small and still functioning St John's Anglican church, dating to the 1880s, you can see the atmospheric ruins of the UMCA's St Mary's School for Girls, set amid lush gardens on the grounds of the Mbweni Ruins Hotel.
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