Sights in Africa
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Tomb of Akhethotep & Ptahhotep
Akhethotep and his son Ptahhotep were senior royal officials during the reigns of Djedkare (2414-2375 BC) and Unas at the end of the 5th dynasty. Akhethotep served as vizier, judge, supervisor of pyramid cities and supervisor of priests, though his titles were eventually inherited by Ptahhotep, along with his tomb. The joint mastaba has two burial chambers, two chapels and a pillared hall.
The painted reliefs in Ptahhotep's section are particularly beautiful, and portray a wide range of animals, from lions and hedgehogs to the domesticated cattle and fowl, that were brought as offerings to the deceased. Ptahhotep himself is portrayed resplendent in a panther-skin robe…
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Tokai Forest Reserve
This wooded area, south of Constantia, is a favourite spot for picnics and walks, the most challenging of which is the 6km hike up to Elephant’s Eye Cave within the Silvermine Nature Reserve. The zigzag path is fairly steep and offers little shade as you climb higher up Constantiaberg (928m), so bring a hat and water.
At the walk’s base you’ll find the Tokai Arboretum, a planting of 1555 different trees representing 274 species, begun in 1885 by Joseph Storr Lister, the conservator of forests for the Cape Colony.
Here, too, is the very pleasant Lister’s Place Tea Garden, where you can pick up a map of walks in the area; excellent accommodation at Wood Owl Cottage;…
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Saite & Persian Tombs
Around the sides of the Pyramid of Unas are several large shaft tombs of the Saite (664-525 BC) and Persian (525-404 BC) eras. These are some of the deepest tombs in Egypt, although the precaution against grave robbers failed. However, the sheer size of the tombs and the great stone sarcophagi within, combined with their sophisticated decoration, demonstrate that the technical achievements of the later part of Egyptian history were equal to those of earlier times.
To the north of the pyramid is the enormous tomb shaft of the Saite general Amun-Tefnakht. On the south side of the pyramid is a group of three Persian tombs - the entrance is covered by a small wooden hut to…
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Grande Mosquée
The Grande Mosquée, built in 1893, is an outstanding example of Sahel-style mud architecture, with conical towers and wooden struts (which both support the structure and act as scaffolding during replastering). Although entry is forbidden for non-Muslims, it's the exterior that is so captivating, especially at sunset when the façade turns golden and the faithful pass by on their way home or to the neighbouring well, often pausing for prayer in the mosque en route.
A powerful sense of community life revolves around the mosque. The quiet and shady grounds in the immediate vicinity are interspersed with shelters and prayer mats for worshippers, and add to the charm of one…
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Unfinished Obelisk
The Unfinished Obelisk is a huge discarded granite obelisk. Three sides of the shaft, which is nearly 42m long, were completed except for the inscriptions. At 1168 tonnes, the completed obelisk would have been the single heaviest piece of stone the Egyptians ever fashioned. However, a flaw appeared in the rock at a late stage in the process. So it lies where the disappointed stonemasons abandoned it, still partly attached to the parent rock, with no indication of what it was intended for.
Upon entering the quarry, steps lead down from the surrounding ramp into the pit of the obelisk where there are ancient pictographs of dolphins and ostriches or flamingos, thought to…
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Mausoleum of Al-Ghouri
On the south side of Sharia al-Azhar, opposite the khan, the grand Mosque-Madrassa of Al-Ghouri, with its red-chequered minaret, and the elegant Mausoleum of Al-Ghouri together form an exquisite monument to the end of the Mamluk era. Qansuh al-Ghouri, the penultimate Mamluk sultan, ruled for 16 years. At the age of 78, he rode to Syria at the head of his army to battle the Ottoman Turks. The head of the defeated Al-Ghouri was sent to Constantinople; his body was never recovered.
His mausoleum (dating from 1505) contains the body of Tumanbey, his short-lived successor, hanged by the Turks at Bab Zuweila. The mausoleum, which has been under restoration for a number of…
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Moulay Idriss Zawiya
Here is the heart of Fez: the mausoleum of the city's founder and the most venerated pilgrimage spot in Morocco. You can't enter unless you're a Muslim, but you can peek inside. It's worth walking around the building to see the beautiful carved and painted wood porches, the wall zellij and painted carved plaster at each doorway.
Near the main entrance are a fountain and a mzara (niche on the outside wall, richly decorated with zellij and plasterwork) where people in too much of a hurry to enter can pay their respects; there's another mzara on Talaa Kebira. The brass money-slot is for giving alms. Housing a mosque and ablution facilities, as well as the tomb of Moulay…
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Mechouar & Chambre de l'Artisanat et des Métiers
Very little remains of the early settlement of Agadir, but the camp Youssef ben Tachfine occupied during his siege of Agadir has now become the Mechouar (entrance on av Cdt Ferradj). A citadel was built over the camp in 1145 and has been one of the town’s centrepieces ever since. The Zianide ruler Yaghmorassen moved his residence inside the Mechouar walls in the early 14th century and a mosque was built in the 1310s. The Ottoman admiral Barbarossa used it as his stronghold in the 16th century and the French followed suit after the fall of Tlemcen, using it as a barracks and hospital. Today the Mechouar offers a place of peace inside its massive walls and across its broad…
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Fekra
Fekra is located on 40,000 sq metres of land on the lake between the old and the High Dam, and overlooks Philae Island. The Fekra Cultural Centre – fekra means thought or idea in Arabic – is a fascinating project of artists from around the world, to support Nubian and Upper Egyptian artists, and to promote an international cultural exchange through organising artistic events and workshops. It is a magical place for its energy and wonderful location: a Nubian-style mudbrick house right on the lake, perfectly peaceful and a great place for swimming. It has accommodation for 12 people and a few extra Bedouin tents, with shared bathrooms. The people coming for workshops take…
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Ruvula
Most visitors head straight to the tiny village of Ruvula, which is about 7km beyond Msimbati village along a sandy track (or along the beach at low tide), and which boasts a fine stretch of sand, although the views have been marred in recent times by the rigs set up at one end in connection with exploitation of offshore gas fields found in Mnazi Bay.
In addition to its beach - one of the few on the mainland offering sunset views - Ruvula is notable as the spot where British eccentric Latham Leslie-Moore built his house and lived until 1967 when he was deported after agitating for independence for the Msimbati Peninsula. Deportation seemed a better option to Leslie-Moore…
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Pyramid of Sahure
Sahure (2487-2475 BC) was the first of the 5th-dynasty pharaohs to be buried at Abu Sir, although his pyramid, originally 50m high, is now badly damaged. The entrance corridor is only half a metre high, and slopes down to a small room. From there, you can then walk through a 75m-long corridor before crawling 2m on your stomach through Pharaonic dust and spider webs to reach the burial chamber.
The better-preserved remains of Sahure's funerary temple complex stand east of the pyramid. This must have been an impressive temple, with black basalt-paved floors, red granite date-palm columns and walls decorated with 10,000 sq metres of superbly detailed reliefs (some of these…
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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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Domaine Les Pailles
Just a few miles outside of the capital the strange sugar estate turned theme park Domaine Les Pailles has been transformed into a cultural and heritage centre that makes for an enjoyable day or half-day excursion. The facilities include rides in horse-drawn carriages, a miniature railway, a working replica of a traditional ox-driven sugar mill, a rum distillery producing the estate's own brew, a spice garden, a quad-biking circuit and a children's playground. There is also a selection of upmarket restaurants.
Visitors can choose to tour the site by train, horse carriage or jeep, with the cost of entry varying accordingly. To get to the Domaine, take any bus running…
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Grand Marché
Bobo-Dioulasso's centrepiece, the expansive Grand Marché, is hugely enjoyable and atmospheric, and a wonderful (and largely hassle-free) place to experience a typical African city market.
Occupying the inner circle are the fruit and vegetable stalls, watched over by colourfully clad women and surrounded by the overwhelming odours of the fish and meat sections. From here to the market's outer rim, impossibly narrow and labyrinthine lanes and makeshift stalls stock household wares and an excellent selection of African cotton prints - as well as reasonably priced tailors who can make clothing from them in a flash. There's a small choice of masks, drums and objects in bronze…
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Sahrij Medersa
Taking its present name from the large rectangular pool or sahrij (basin) in its courtyard, this medersa dates from the 14th century. Built by the Merinid sultan Abou al-Hassan as a theological school attached to the Al-Andalous mosque, it features rich decoration including ornate and exquisite panels of mashrabiya (intricate carved wood), zellij and decorative plasterwork.
The building was designed to lead students from the entrance through the ornate screen door, past the sahrij and to the mihrab (niche indicating direction of Mecca) in the prayer room opposite the entrance. The Getty Foundation recently funded a conservation analysis of the building, which is in poor…
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Tintenpalast
The road east from Alte Feste leads to the Tintenpalast, now the parliament building, which was designed by Gottlieb Redecker and built in 1913 as the administrative headquarters for German South-West Africa. The name means 'Ink Palace', in honour of all the ink spent on the typically excessive government paperwork it generated. It has also served as the nerve centre for all subsequent governments, including the present one.
The building is remarkable mainly for its construction from indigenous materials. The surrounding gardens were laid out in the 1930s, and include an olive grove and a bowling green. In front, have a look at Namibia's first post-independence monument,…
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Palais des Raïs
The palace is in fact a row of several large waterfront houses, joined up to form a single compound and now home to the Centre des Arts et de la Culture. Palace 18, the main building, was begun in 1750 and completed around 1798 by the Dey Mustapha Pacha, who used it as one of his residences. The French military occupied it for a while, after which it served as the American consulate, a school and a library before becoming the most successful restoration project in the city. The buildings are used as exhibition space for some excellent shows, but much of the pleasure and interest is in seeing inside a grand, Ottoman-period mansion. The rooms are rarely massive,…
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Citadel
The city's stronghold, the Citadel dominates the Casbah and the port and was, from the 16th century, the guarantor of peace and a safe haven in times of war. Although there was a Berber stronghold here from early times, the present massive structure was begun in 1516 by Aroudj, the brother of Kheireddin Barbarossa. With its walls lined with batteries of canon, 188m above sea level, it dominated the port, the lower town and the surrounding countryside.
Canons were placed facing inland as well as out to sea, for the ruler of Algiers was never free of threats from Berber and Bedouin tribes. The citadel was little more than military barracks until 1816, when the British…
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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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Bet Merkorios
Reached via a long, narrow and pitch-black tunnel that starts from Bet Gabriel-Rufael, this current church may have started as something altogether different. The discovery of ankle shackles among other objects has led scholars to believe that the building may have served as the town's prison, or house of justice.
Due to a large section of roof collapsing, the interior is a fraction of its former size. Don't miss the beautiful fresco thought to represent the three wise men. With their little flipper hands and eyes that look askance, they're delightfully depicted; it may date from the 15th century. The 12 apostles are also represented in a less attractive fresco, probably…
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Museum of Modern Egyptian Art
Across from the Cairo Opera House, the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art houses a vast – perhaps too vast – collection of 20th- and 21st-century Egyptian art. It can be difficult to appreciate the work given the cramped rooms, collected dust and lack of signage. The museum’s prize items are all on the ground floor: Mahmoud Mukhtar’s deco-elegant bronze statue Bride of the Nile is here, along with Mahmoud Said’s Al Madina (The City, 1937). Though Said has a slew of kitschy imitators, he was one of the first artists to depict folk life in vivid colour, and his commitment inspired Naguib Mahfouz to pursue his own career in writing. Throughout the museum, it is…
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Musée National du Niger
The sprawling Musée National du Niger is one of West Africa's standouts. Numerous themed pavilions, each tipping their hat to Hausa architecture, give visitors a peek into Niger's present and past. The Pablo Toucet pavilion displays the dress of Niger's different ethnic groups - a quick way to train the eye for differentiating these groups as you travel around Niger.
While common sense and science dictate that there are no 2m-tall, 15m-long crocodiles wandering the earth today, one jaw-dropping glimpse of the Boubou Hana pavilion's 100 million-year-old Sarcosuchus imperator, or 'Super Croc', and you'll be second guessing everything - chilling indeed! Oddly, similarly…
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Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan
Massive yet elegant, the great structure of the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan is regarded as the finest piece of early-Mamluk architecture in Cairo. It was built between 1356 and 1363 by the troubled Sultan Hassan, a grandson of Sultan Qalaun; he took the throne at the age of 13, was deposed and reinstated no less than three times, then assassinated shortly before the mosque was completed. Tragedy also shadowed the construction when one of the minarets collapsed, killing some 300 onlookers. Beyond the striking, recessed entrance, a dark passage leads into a square courtyard whose soaring walls are punctured by four iwan s (vaulted halls), one dedicated to teaching each…
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Dahshur
Dahshur is an impressive 3.5km-long (2.2mi-long) field of 4th- and 12th-dynasty pyramids, older cousins of the Pyramids of Giza. Of the original 11 pyramids here, only the Bent and Red Pyramids remain intact. Also worth a look are the mud-brick remains of the Black Pyramid, which contain a maze of corridors and rooms designed to deceive tomb robbers.
Pharaoh Sneferu (2613-2589 BC), father of Khufu and founder of the 4th dynasty, built Egypt's first true pyramid here, the Red Pyramid. He also built an earlier version, the Bent Pyramid. These two pyramids were the same height. They are also the equal third-largest pyramids in Egypt, after the two largest at Giza.
Many…
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Mons Claudianus
About 40km along the Safaga-Qena road, a signposted track breaks off northwest towards Mons Claudianus, an old Roman granite quarry/fortress complex, and one of the largest of the Roman settlements dotting the Eastern Desert. This stark and remote place was the end of the line for Roman prisoners brought to hack the granite out of the barren mountains, and was a hardship post for the soldiers sent to guard them.
It was more a concentration camp than a quarry - you can still see the remains of the tiny cells that these unfortunates inhabited. There is also an immense cracked pillar, left where it fell 2000 years ago, a small temple and some other ruins. Once the granite…
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