Square, Plaza sights in Africa
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Djemaa El-Fna
Grab a front-row or balcony seat at a café alongside the Djemaa, and watch the drama unfold. As the sun travels across the sky, orange-juice vendors make way for healers and henna tattoo artists, who scoot over for snake charmers, astrologers and acrobats. Around dusk, the storytellers begin their epic tales, and cooks cart in the makings of 100 restaurants specializing in barbecued everything, tasty cooked salads and steaming snails.
For the ultimate dinner theatre, look no further than the Gnaoua drummers, male belly dancers and Berber musicians surrounding the Djemaa dining action.
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Place Mohammed V
Place Mohammed V is the grand centrepiece of the French regeneration scheme. The vast square is surrounded by an impressive array of august administrative buildings, mostly designed by Henri Prost and Robert Marrast. The ancienne préfecture (old police headquarters), dating from 1930, dominates the south side of the square and is topped by a modernist clock tower.
The nearby Palais de Justice (law courts) was built in 1925. The huge main door and entrance was inspired by the Persian iwan, a vaulted hall that usually opens into the central court of the medersa (theological college) of a mosque. Stroll across the grand square and admire the 1918 main post office, a…
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Place el-Hedim
The heart of Meknès medina is Place el-Hedim , the large square facing Bab el-Mansour. Built by Moulay Ismail and originally used for royal announcements and public executions, it's a good place to sit and watch the world go by - kids playing football, hawkers selling miracle cures, and promenading families. The western side of the square is edged by an excellent covered produce market and catches the spill-over from the souqs to the north.
To the south, the impressive monumental gateway of Bab el-Mansour leads into Moulay Ismail's imperial city. The narrow streets of the old mellah are in the west of the medina.
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Praça de Independência
This wide plaza is rimmed on one side by the soaring white spire of the Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Conceição and on the other by the hulking, neoclassical Conselho Municipal (City Hall).
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Church Square
At the heart of Pretoria, imposing public buildings surround Church Sq. These include the Palace of Justice, where the Rivonia Trial that sentenced Nelson Mandela to life imprisonment was held, on the northern side; the Ou Raadsaal (Old Government) building on the southern side; the Old Capitol Theatre in the northwestern corner; First National Bank in the northeast; the Old Nederlandsche Bank building, which adjoins the Café Riche and houses the Tourist Information Centre; and the main post office at the western side. Look for the clock, surrounded by nude figures by Anton van Wouw, above the Church Sq entrance to the post office.
‘Old Lion’, Paul Kruger takes pride…
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Place 1 Novembre
Oran's main square, the Place 1 Novembre, is the definitive expression of French rule in Oran. The city's main meeting place (called pl Napoleon, pl d'Armes and pl Maréchal Foch at various times in its history), it has a baroque theatre on one side and the town hall on the other, which was the city's main meeting place. In the middle of the square stands an obelisk topped with a Winged Victory, erected by French sculptor Dalou in 1898.
The original work commemorated the French soldiers who died at the battle of Sidi-Brahim in 1845. After independence the French sculpture was replaced by busts of the Sufi saint Moulay Abdelkader. The town hall, which Camus thought…
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Moulay Hassan Square
Created towards the end of 19th century by order of the Alawite sultan Moulay al-Hassan I, this impressive square is surrounded by high pisé walls. The northern gate of the royal palace, known as Bab Makhzen, is here, as is the monumental Bab Sbaâ (the Lion Gate, aka Bab Dkaken), which features three solid arches flanked by two towers. Walk through Bab Sbaâ to see Bab al-Makina, the mechouar (assembly place) that is the main venue for the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music.
Fronting the mechouar is Dar Makina, a muscular European-influenced building dating from 1886. Designed by Italian architects and engineers, it was built to house the imperial arsenal. Behind the …
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Djemaa el-Fna
Think of it as live-action channel-surfing: everywhere you look in the Djemaa el-Fna, Marrakesh’s main square and open-air theatre, you’ll discover drama already in progress. Snake-charmers frantically blast oboes to calm cobras hissing at careening Vespas; water-sellers in fringed hats clang brass cups together, hoping to drive people to drink. On the upper balcony of a café, star-crossed young lovers furtively plot their next meeting, while downstairs, not-so-incognito Hollywood celebrities slurp fresh-squeezed orange juice in sunglasses and studio-logo baseball caps. But Gnaoua musicians inevitably steal the show, working groovy rhythms that get fez tassels spinning…
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Green Square
Scour an old, pre-revolution map of Tripoli and you're likely to find yourself a little disoriented. That's because Green Square - the hub of central Tripoli where the medina meets the traffic-filled streets of modern Tripoli - was only carved out after the 1969 revolution. Until then, the square was about half of its current size and its northeastern boundary was the waterfront - in the 1970s, around 500m of land was reclaimed to ease chronic traffic congestion.
In its early days, Green Sq was primarily for mass rallies in support of the revolution, and while it still serves this purpose, it more often serves as a car park or fairground during public holidays. Floodlit…
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Town Walls
Harar's old walled town is a fascinating place that begs exploration. The thick, 5m-high walls around town, which stand to this day, were erected in the 16th century by an emir, in response to the migrations northwards of the Oromo. Within the walls the city is a maze of narrow, twisting alleys and lanes, replete with historic buildings, including 82 small mosques, numerous shrines and tombs, as well as traditional Harari houses.
The magnificent Adare (Harari) women, known for their very colourful traditional costumes, add to the appeal. Their dresses - usually black, yellow, red or purple - are worn over velvet trousers. Many also wear orange headscarves. Sometimes they…
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Medina
Chefchaouen's medina is one of the loveliest in Morocco. Small and uncrowded, it's easy to explore, with enough winding paths to keep you diverted, but compact enough that you'll never quite get lost. Most of the buildings are painted a blinding blue-white, giving the whole place a clean, fresh look, while the terracotta pantiles on many buildings added an Andalucian flavour.
Centred on Plaza Uta el-Hammam, the medina occupies the eastern half of the town centre, with its main entrance on its western side at Bab el-Ain. The majority of hotels and restaurants are found here.
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Nobel Square
Here’s your chance to have your photo taken with Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Larger-than-life statues of both men, designed by Claudette Schreuders, stand beside those of South Africa’s two other Nobel Prize winners – Nkosi Albert Luthuli and FW de Klerk – in Waterfront square. Also here is the Peace and Democracy sculpture by Noria Mahasa, which symbolises the contribution of women and children to the struggle. It’s etched with pertinent quotes, translated into all the major languages of the country, by each of the great men.
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Plaza Uta el-Hammam
The heart of Chefchaouen's medina is the shady, cobbled Plaza Uta el-Hammam, dominated by the red-hued walls of the kasbah and the striking Grande Mosquée. The square is lined with cafés, which are blissfully relaxing places from which to watch the world go by, or for recuperating after a hard day's trekking (or shopping). Just off the northeast corner of the square is the Funduq Chfichu, an ancient accommodation and stabling block, long used by pilgrims and travellers and still full on market days.
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Petit Socco
Gone are the days when William Burroughs could cheerfully write of the endless stream of louche offers from young boys and men around the Petit Socco. Nowadays, the busy little square in the medina is a great place to linger over a mint tea, watch the world go by and contemplate its colourful past. And sleaze remains close to the surface: you'll have plenty of offers of 'something special, my friend' and several of the cheap pensions overlooking the square still double as brothels.
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Plaza Alameda
Gaze north across leafy Plaza Alameda a good place to sip a café cortado - an espresso with a splash of milk) and you'll think Christopher Columbus' ship, the Santa María, became stranded here. But no, it's actually the city's Museo Naval, known as El Barco de la Virgen (The Virgin's Boat) to the locals. It was closed for repairs at the time of research, but until it reopens it makes for a great photo opportunity.
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Grand Socco
The gateway to the medina is the Grand Socco, once as full of life as Place Djemaa el-Fna in Marrakesh. Its official name, Place du 9 Avril 1947, refers to the date that Mohammed V first publicly allied himself to the cause of Moroccan independence. The square was being rebuilt and gentrified during research, so it's hard to know if its soul will survive. The best we may hope for is that the terrible traffic surrounding the square is tamed.
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Old Town
West from the ferry terminal towards the wide Ma Cumba Jallow St (Dobson St) is a chaotic assembly of decrepit colonial buildings and Krio-style clapboard houses - steep-roofed structures with wrought-iron balconies and corrugated roofs. It's no coincidence they resemble the inner-city architecture of Freetown, Sierra Leone, as many of them still belong to families who came to Banjul from Freetown, some as early as the 1820s.
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Rue du Commerce
Any day around town should also take you along Rue du Commerce, which runs parallel to the river - not only for the stunning view, but for the impressive sight of dozens of pirogue makers and painters, fishermen and women cleaning mussels. The best place to see them at work is the stretch of coast between the Hôtel Kadiandoumagne and the restaurant Le Erobon.
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Demnati Fountain & Dar Dmana
This street opens out into a square with an ancient mulberry tree. There's an exceptionally tall traditional house, Dar Dmana, with a massive studded door, and the Demnati fountain. Wait a while, and you might see magnificent stallions being washed, their manes and tails stained red with henna. Also here is an antique shop worth a browse, Brocante Bab Touta .
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Plaza España
Wander north along Calle O'Daly and you'll come to the palm-shaded Plaza España, considered the most important example of Renaissance architecture in the Canary Islands. To one side sits the imposing town hall, and across the plaza is the ornate Iglesia del Salvador. Follow the steps heading up out of the Plaza de España to reach the upper town.
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Calle O'Daly
Chances are you'll be starting your visit of La Palma either from the Plaza Constitución or from the huge ocean-front parking lot. Either way, you're a short walk from Calle O'Daly, the city's main street. Named for an Irish trader who made La Palma his home, the street is full of shops, bars and some of the town's most impressive architecture.
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Sagha Square
This square contains the 18th century Sagha Funduq with magnificent mashrabiya panels. The scales in the courtyard were for weighing fleeces; cotton and wool are still sold here. Near the entrance is a fountain with a tiled koubba (dome-shaped roof). There's also the fascinating Café Ba Bouchta opposite the funduq.
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Place des Martyrs
Adrar doesn't hold a great deal for tourists, however it's worth wandering through the Place des Martyrs, if only to appreciate its size and interesting architecture. The buildings that encircle it include an impressive mosque, and four large red mud archways, studded with wooden spikes, marking the main entrance points to the square.
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Midan Tahrir
With half a dozen major arteries converging, Midan Tahrir is the fulcrum of modern-day Cairo, and as a result the site of some serious traffic and pedestrian jams. But the square is one of the few central spaces that isn't hemmed in by buildings and overpasses, making it an excellent spot to have a look around and orient yourself.
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July 22 Square
A recently greened colonial creation, July 22 Square was once the site of cricket matches but is now mainly used for governmental pomp and public celebrations. Look out for the War Memorial and the (now dried-up) fountain 'erected by public subscription' to commemorate the coronation of King George VI of Britain in 1937.
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