Sights in Africa
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Grand Mosque
Constantine is graced with Souk el-Ghazal Mosque and several other beautiful mosques, but these are only open to Muslims. The oldest, and one of the most visible, is the Grand Mosque. Built in the 13th century on the site of a pagan temple, it was intended, as the Friday mosque, to hold most of the city’s population. Although it has been rebuilt over the centuries and has a modern façade, the interior has retained some of its original features, including some pillars and Corinthian capitals brought from Hippo Regius. The city’s most prominent monument – you will see its twin 107m high minarets as you approach the centre – is the Mosque of Emir Abdelkader. The…
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Tomb of the False Door
In 1972 the unique Tomb of the False Door was discovered. Known locally as the Tomb of King Ramhai, it lies in the western extremity of the Northern Stelae Field and is thought to date between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. More complex in structure, its stone blocks are also larger and more finely dressed than those found in some other tombs. Comprising an antechamber and inner chamber, it's surrounded on three sides by a passage.
Above the tomb, at ground level, a rectangular, probably flat-roofed building would once have stood (measuring some 12 sq metres by 2.8m high). Above the stairs descending into the tomb's chamber was a stone slab carved with a false door almost…
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Massina
From the pleasant Fula village of Massina, you can start a trip along the Niger by public pinasse (large canoe). A good first stop is Diafarabé, where vast Fula herds cross the Niger in one of West Africa's most picturesque annual rituals.
Every late December or early January (the exact date of the crossing is not set until November because much depends on water levels), Diafarabé (and other places along the Niger with large Fula populations) is transformed into a hive of activity as hundreds of thousands of cows are driven southwards and across the Niger to greener pastures.
The crossing, known as Dewgal, dates back almost 200 years and is a happy time for the Fula…
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Ouadâne
The first glimpse of Ouadâne, a Unesco World Heritage site is arresting. The old quarter that stretches atop the hill is one of the most enchanting semi-ghost towns of the Sahara. As you arrive across the sands or plateau from Atâr or Chinguetti, the stone houses of Le Ksar al Kiali (old quarter) seem to tumble down the cliff like an apparition.
From the base of the town, the lush gardens of the oasis stretch out before the desert again takes hold. The top of the hill is dominated by the minaret of the new mosque, a mere 200 years old. At the western end, at the base of the town, is the 14th-century old mosque.
Ouadâne was founded in 1147 by Berbers, and sits on the…
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Mt Kilimanjaro National Park
An almost perfectly shaped volcano rising sheer from Tanzania's northeastern plains, Mt Kilimanjaro is one of Africa's most magnificent sights. Snowcapped and not yet extinct, at 5896m (19343ft) it's the highest peak on the continent.
The name of Kilimanjaro is as shrouded in mystery as the mist-enveloped summit. 'Mountain of Light' is one of the several possible translations, although many locals refer to the snowy peak as Kipoo or Kibo.
Daunting as it looks, it's possible to scale the mountain without technical mountaineering skills - all you need is determination, warm clothing and a properly equipped guide. There's no doubt you'll go through the pain barrier on the…
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Kasubi Tombs
The Kasubi Tombs, just off Masiro Rd, were first built in 1881 and are worth a look for a dose of traditional culture. There are several huge traditional reed and bark cloth buildings of the kabakas of the Buganda people. The group of buildings contains the tombs of Muteesa I, his son Mwanga (Sir Daudi Chwa II) and his son Edward Muteesa II, father of the current kabaka, Ronald Mutebi II (known also by his Bugandan name, Muwenda). Edward Muteesa II died in London in 1969, three years after being deposed by Obote. The tombs are taken care of by the Ganda clans.
The Kasubi Tombs are open year-round, including holidays. Remove your shoes before entering the main building.…
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Enda Iyesus
For as long as 5000 years, monoliths have been used in northeast Africa as tombstones and monuments to local rulers. In Aksum, this tradition reached its apogee. Like Egypt's pyramids, Aksum's stelae were like great billboards announcing to the world the authority, power and greatness of the ruling families. Aksum's astonishing stelae are striking for their huge size, their incredible, almost pristine, state of preservation, and their curiously modern look.
Sculpted from single pieces of granite, some look more like Manhattan skyscrapers than 1800-year-old obelisks, complete with little windows, doors and sometimes even door handles and locks! Metal plates, perhaps in the…
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Serdab
A stone structure right in front of the pyramid, the serdab (a small room containing a statue of the deceased to which offerings were presented) contains a slightly tilted wooden box with two holes drilled into its north face. Look through these and you'll have the eerie experience of coming face to face with Zoser himself. Inside is a near-life-size, lifelike painted statue of the long-dead pharaoh, gazing stonily out towards the stars.
It's worth noting that this statue is only a copy - the original statue is in Cairo's Egyptian Museum. The original entrance to the Step Pyramid is directly behind the serdab, and leads down to a maze of subterranean tunnels and chambers…
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Cirta Museum
The city doesn’t have much to show for its illustrious past, but the colonial-period museum has proof enough. The collection comes from excavations in the city and nearby Tiddis and with the displays being something of a jumble, it appears as an old-style ‘cabinet of curiosities’. But there are some stunning pieces, the highlights include a seated terracotta figure from a 2nd-century BC tomb and an exquisite marble bust of a woman known as the ‘beauty of Djemila’. Also worth seeing is the beautifully cast bronze sculpture of winged ‘Victory of Constantine’, found by soldiers while excavating the streets of the casbah in 1855. If you are planning a visit to the Roman…
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Theatre and Museum
It you are following the story of ancient Algeria then you will want to stop at Guelma. The modern town is a sleepy, provincial place with little to show for its illustrious past. The rue 8 May 1945, just beyond the central Hôtel la Couronne, leads to the Jardin Archéologique, where columns and statues have been arranged in a garden that was locked at the time of our visit. Beyond lies the theatre and museum. Most of the ancient theatre was quarried over the centuries, so what stands today – a soaring backdrop, an imposing stage and rows of seating – dates back no further than 1902, when the French archaeologist M Joly began the reconstruction. The site is impressive…
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Swahili House Museum
If the Lamu Museum stokes your interest in Swahili culture, this beautifully restored traditional house tucked away off to the side of Yumbe House hotel will put you firmly back in the past.
Inside Swahili House Museum you'll find a recreation of a working Swahili home, with cookware, beds and other furniture. The attendant will give you a whistle-stop but informative tour in between small talk, including some fascinating descriptions of the regimented lives of Swahilis in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Traditional Swahili homes were built along rigid social lines, with separate quarters for men and women and audience halls that allowed men to receive guests without…
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Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
It’s a long, hot jostle down dusty crimson roads to reach magical Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, one of the world’s last great, unspoilt ecosystems. But once you step foot inside Africa’s first multinational park, tucked away between Botswana and Namibia in the country’s extreme north, you’ll understand why journeying to the end of the earth is well worth the effort. The Kgalagadi is a wild land of harsh extremes and frequent droughts, where shifting red-and-white sands meet thorn trees and dry riverbeds. Yet despite the desolate landscape, it’s teeming with wildlife. From prides of black-maned lion to packs of howling spotted hyenas there are more than 1100 predators…
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Mosque of Mohammed Ali
The fortress - and indeed, the Cairo skyline - is dominated by the Mosque of Mohammed Ali. Modelled along classic Turkish lines, it took 18 years to build (1830-48) although the domes later had to be rebuilt. Perhaps the most evocative description of it is in Olivia Manning's The Levant Trilogy: 'Above them Mohammed Ali's alabaster mosque, uniquely white in this sand-coloured city, sat with minarets pricked, like a fat, white, watchful cat'.
Manning is not alone in not taking the mosque as seriously as Mohammed Ali intended. It has never found much favour with writers, who have criticised it for being unimaginative, lacking in grace and resembling a great toad. Beyond…
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Mosque of Qaitbey
Sultan Qaitbey, a prolific builder, was the last Mamluk leader with any real power in Egypt. He ruled for 28 years and, though he was as ruthless as any Mamluk sultan, he was also something of an aesthete. The Mosque of Qaitbey, completed in 1474 and depicted on the around £E1 note, is widely agreed to mark the pinnacle of Islamic building in Cairo.
The façade has bold stripes and the interior has four iwans around a central court lit by large, lattice-screened windows. Featuring loads of marble, it's one of the most pleasant places in Cairo to sit for a while and relax.
The adjacent tomb chamber contains the cenotaphs of Qaitbey and his two sisters, as well as two…
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Bardo Museum of Prehistory & Ethnography
The Bardo Museum of Prehistory & Ethnography was built at the end of the 18th century as the country residence of a Tunisian prince exiled in Algiers. Enlarged by a Frenchman during the colonial period, it has been a museum since 1930, displaying the early history and later ethnology of the region. This includes some fabulous fossils, a collection of Neolithic pottery and stones, and particularly impressive rock carvings and paintings of horses and chariots brought from deep in the Sahara in the Tassili N’Ajjer region. Better still is the collection of urban artefacts in the ethnography section. See the elegant copper tea pot, the carved and painted wooden furniture and…
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Abuko Nature Reserve
Abuko is rare among African wildlife reserves: it's tiny, it's easy to reach, you don't need a car to go in, and it's well managed, with an amazing diversity of vegetation and animals. More than 250 bird species have been recorded in its environs, making it one of the region's best bird-watching haunts.
Among the 52 mammal species calling Abuko home are bushbucks, duikers, porcupines, bush babies and ground squirrels as well as three monkey types: green or vervet monkeys, endangered western red colobus monkeys and patas monkeys.
The reserve is particularly famous for its Nile crocodiles and other slithering types such as pythons, puff adders, green mambas and forest…
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Kairouan Medina
Less commercial than other medinas in the country, Kairouan's feels even more like it ebbs and flows to a different rhythm than modern Tunisia. Most of it is given over to quiet residential streets whose rather derelict façades are set off by grand and ornate doors, and windows, arches and shutters in bright blues and greens, more reminiscent of the Caribbean than of North Africa.
It's possible to wander much of the medina without being confronted by a single souvenir-buying opportunity as virtually all of the commerce is restricted to the main north-south thoroughfare of ave 7 Novembre. Here you'll find several carpet shops selling high quality products and all the…
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Nubian Villages
Sandwiched between the ruins of Abu and the Mövenpick are two colourful Nubian Villages, Siou and Koti. Strolling through their shady alleys and gardens is a wonderful way to experience life on modern Elephantines.
A north-south path across the middle of the island links the two villages and about halfway along is the Nubian Café, with a shady garden beside a traditional Nubian house. The wonderful Hamdi, who often hangs out here, loves to tell people about his culture. Beware that several readers have warned about locals pretending to be Hamdi and trying to sell excursions or souvenirs. Some of these people have turned aggressive when visitors declined their services.
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Roque Cinchado
A few kilometres south of the peak, across from the parador, lies this geological freak show of twisted lava pinnacles with names like the Finger of God and the Cathedral. Known as the Roques de García, they are the result of erosion of old volcanic dykes, or vertical streams of magma. The hard rock of the dykes has been bared while surrounding earth and rock has been gradually swept away.
The weirdest of the rocks, the Roque Cinchado, is wearing away faster at the base than above, and one of these days is destined to topple over (so maybe you shouldn't get too close). Spreading out to the west are the otherworldly bald plains of the Llano de Ucanca. This is the most…
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Montazah Palace Gardens
Khedive Abbas Hilmy (1892-1914) built Montazah as his summer palace, a refuge when Cairo became too hot. Sited on a rocky bluff overlooking the sea, it's designed in a pseudo-Moorish style, which has been given a Florentine twist with the addition of a tower modelled on one at the Palazzo Vecchio. Now used by Egypt's president, the palace is off limits to the public but the surrounding lush groves and Montazah Palace Gardens, planted with pine and palms, are accessible.
They're popular with courting couples and picnicking locals.There's also an attractive sandy cove here with a semiprivate beach (around £E10 to use it, although it's not particularly clean), and an…
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Zaouia of Sidi Sahab
This extensive zaouia, about 1.5km northwest of the medina, houses the tomb of Abu Zama el-Belaoui, a sahab (companion) of the Prophet Mohammed. He was known as the barber because he always carried three hairs from the Prophet's beard with him, and the zaouia is sometimes referred to as the Mosque of the Barber. While the original mausoleum dates back to the 7th century AD, most of what stands today was added at the end of the 17th century.
The additions include a funduq to house pilgrims, a medersa (Quranic school) and a mosque. Entry to the zaouia is with the multiple-site ticket. The entrance is along an unusually decorative marble passageway that leads to a stunning…
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s-Complex
Off Rte 563 and on the way to Hekpoort, s is perhaps the best-known attraction here and is a good place to start. Housed in a building that looks like a giant grassy mound on one side and shiny modern steel on the other (apparently representing man’s journey through the ages), it’s an all-in-one information centre, visitor attraction, entertainment complex and boutique hotel. Its name is Tswana for ‘returning to your origin’, and the exhibits here show how the human race has progressed since its very beginnings. There are market stalls, active fossil sites, restaurants, a curio shop and a 5000-seat amphitheatre for outdoor events. There’s also a pretty cool boat ride…
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Dankalia
Dankalia is the name given to the narrow strip of land about 50km (31mi) wide that stretches south of Massawa down to Djibouti (about 600km/372mi), along the coastline. You can't miss it on the map: it looks like a long peninsula protruding from the south of the country. It's a volcanic desert where you'll be struck in awe by otherworldly, lunar landscapes.
It is known as one of the hottest and most inhospitable places on Earth: there's little to see, nothing to do, and no great destination awaiting you at the other end. The journey is hot, tiring and demanding; few travellers come here. But the sense of exploration is real, even on the rickety old bus. If you drive, the…
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Ship Yards
While steel and fibreglass construction techniques dominate the modern shipbuilding industry, more traditional methods of construction remain in Alexandria. At the Ship Yards at the northern end of Anfushi, yachts are still constructed by hand and made entirely from wood. Along this stretch of coast lie dozens of yachts in various stages of completion, many with the slick modern designs more reminiscent of their fibreglass cousins.
Here, skeletal wooden hulls of three-storey vessels tower over the sand like beached dinosaur exhibits and dozens of smaller craft compete with them for beach space. In between curving hulls, small shacks line the beach housing building…
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Akhmin
The satellite town of Akhmin covers the ruins of the ancient Egyptian town of Ipu, itself built over an older predynastic settlement. It was dedicated to Min, a fertility god often represented by a giant phallus, equated with Pan by the Greeks (who later called the town Panopolis). The current name contains an echo of the god's name.
Akhmin was famed in antiquity for its textiles - one of its current weavers calls it 'Manchester before history'. The tradition continues today and opposite the statue of Meret Amun, across from the post office, a green door leads to a small weaving factory (knock if it is shut). Here you can see weavers at work and buy hand-woven silk and…
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