Sights in Africa
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Le Tour Hassan
Le Tour Hassan. Towering above the Oued Bou Regreg is Rabat's most famous landmark. This enormous minaret was begun by the Almohad sultan Yacoub al-Mansour in 1195 and was intended to reach 60m, making it the largest and highest in the Muslim world. However, the sultan's grand plans were thwarted by his death four years later, and the tower was never completed. Abandoned at 44m, the beautifully designed and intricately carved tower still lords over the remains of the adjacent mosque.
The mosque was destroyed by an earthquake in 1755, and today only a forest of shattered pillars testifies to the grandiosity of Al-Mansour's plans.
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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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Skala de la Ville
The dramatic, wave-lashed ramparts that surround the medina are a great place to get an overview of the labyrinth of streets. The ramparts were famously used in the opening scene of Orson Welles' Othello for a panoramic shot where Iago is suspended in a cage above the rocks and sea. The easiest place to access the ramparts is at Skala de la Ville, the impressive sea bastion built along the cliffs. A collection of European brass cannons from the 18th and 19th centuries line the walkway here and you'll also get great views out to sea and wonderful sunsets.
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National Cultural Centre Complex
The National Cultural Centre Complex is set within spacious grounds and includes a model Ashanti village; craft workshops where you can see brassworking, woodcarving, pottery making, batik cloth dyeing and kente cloth weaving; a gallery and crafts shop; the regional library; the tourism office; and the small Prempeh II Jubilee Museum.
The craft workshops aren't always active, especially on Sunday, and it's all rather low-key, but the grounds are shady and it's an agreeable place to spend a few hours including lunch at the restaurant in the complex.
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Gandhi's Shrine
Near the source of the Nile plaque is a small memorial garden commemorating Mahatma Gandhi, the centrepiece of which is a bronze bust donated by the Indian Government. This area is becoming quite a pilgrimage site for Ugandan Indians, as this is one of the places where Gandhi's ashes were scattered. (It seems that on Gandhi's death in 1948, his ashes were divided up and sent to many locations around the world to be scattered - and some ended up in the Nile River in Uganda.)
So Gandhi was rafting the Nile long before the Adrift team came to town.
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Union Buildings
These sweeping sandstone buildings are the headquarters of government and home to the presidential offices. They sit in an elevated position, surveying beautiful terraced gardens planted with indigenous trees and the city beyond. The gardens are often used for public celebrations and Mandela’s inauguration took place here back in 1994. Statues of a few former prime ministers inhabit the grounds, including an impressive General Louis Botha on horseback. There’s also a WWI memorial here, and a memorial to the South African police. The buildings, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, are about a 2km walk from the city centre; alternatively, catch just about any bus heading east on…
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Voortrekker Monument & Nature Reserve
A visit to the striking Voortrekker Monument is a near spiritual experience for many Afrikaners. It was constructed between 1938 and 1949 – a time of great Afrikaner nationalism – to honour the journey of the Voortrekkers, who trekked north over the coastal mountains of the Cape into the heart of the African veld. It pays tribute in particular to the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838, during which 470 Boers, under the command of Andries Pretorius, defeated approximately 12,000 Zulus, killing many of them.
A visit to the striking Voortrekker Monument is a near spiritual experience for many Afrikaners. It was constructed between 1938 and 1949 – a time of great…
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Parc National de Pendjari
This 275,000-hectare national park 45km (28mi) north of Natitingou, is the wildlife park par excellence in this part of West Africa. Visitors may spot lions, leopards, elephants, baboons and hippos. The best viewing time is near the end of the dry season when the animals start to hover around the water holes.
With waterfalls, a woody landscape and good tracks, it is a pleasure to drive around. The park adjoins the Parc National d'Arli in Burkina Faso and is bordered to the west, north and east by the Pendjari River.
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Parque Natural de Corralejo
The beach dunes of the protected Parque Natural de Corralejo stretch along the east coast for about 10km from Corralejo. It can get breezy here, hence the popularity with windsurfers and kite boarders. The locals have applied their ingenuity to the sand-sticking-to-the-suntan-lotion problem by erecting little fortresses of loose stones atop shrub-covered sandy knolls to protect sun-worshippers from the wind. The area is free to enter, and sun lounges and umbrellas are available for hire in front of the luxury hotels.
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Irma Stern Museum
The pioneering 20th-century artist Irma Stern (1894–1966) lived in this house for almost 40 years and her studio has been left virtually intact, as if she’d just stepped out into the verdant garden for a breath of fresh air. Her ethnographic art-and-craft collection from around the world is as fascinating as her own expressionist art, which has been compared favourably to Gauguin’s. To reach the museum from Rosebank station, walk a few minutes west to Main Rd, cross over and walk up Chapel St.
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Alexandria National Museum
The excellent Alexandria National Museum sets new benchmarks for summing up Alexandria’s past. With a small, thoughtfully selected and well-labelled collection singled out from Alexandria’s other museums, it does a sterling job of relating the city’s history from antiquity until the modern period. Housed in a beautifully restored Italianate villa, it stocks several thousand years of Alexandrian history, arranged chronologically over three cryogenically air-conditioned floors.
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Turbine Hall
Much of the area around Mary Fitzgerald Sq was once taken up by a giant power station. The huge Turbine Hall, next to SAB World of Beer, is one of the city’s more impressive buildings. The north boiler house was imploded in 2005 and now houses the impressive headquarters of AngloGold Ashanti, beautifully developed to blend in with existing architecture. The south boiler house remains empty but is used for some wonderfully creative events. The area is now known as Turbine Sq.
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uShaka Marine World
Divided into several areas (Sea World, Wet’n’Wild World and uShaka Beach), uShaka Marine World boasts one of the world’s largest aquariums, the biggest collection of sharks in the southern hemisphere, a seal stadium, a dolphinarium, marine animals and exhibits, a mock-up 1940s steamer wreck featuring two classy restaurants, a shopping centre, enough freshwater rides to make you seasick, and a beach featuring activities from surfing lessons to kayaking.
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Kommetjie Beaches
A focal point for surfing on the Cape, Kommetjie offers an assortment of reefs that hold a very big swell. Outer Kommetjie is a left point out from Slangkop Lighthouse at the southern end of the village. Inner Kommetjie is a more-protected, smaller left with lots of kelp (only at high tide). They both work best with a southeasterly or southwesterly wind. For breezy beach walks, it doesn't get much better than the aptly named Long Beach, accessed off Benning Dr.
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Harare Gardens
Harare Gardens, the city's largest park, is a haven from the city bustle just a few blocks south, and a favourite spot for wedding photos and canoodling couples. Look for the island-like stand of rainforest with its miniature Victoria Falls and Zambezi Gorge.
Despite its peaceful atmosphere, Harare Gardens is notorious for crime, so always avoid short-cutting through the park at night and watch your belongings carefully by day. No cycling is allowed.
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Hector Pieterson Memorial
North of Vilakazi St is Soweto's showcase, Hector Pieterson Sq. Named after the 13-year-old who was shot dead in the run-up to the Soweto uprising , the square now features the poignant Hector Pieterson Memorial and the excellent Hector Pieterson Museum, which offers an insight into Sowetan life and the history of the independence struggle. From the square, a line of shrubs leads up Moema St to the site where he was shot outside the school.
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Darajani Market
The dark, narrow passageways of the chaotic Darajani market assault the senses, with occasional whiffs of spices mixing with the stench of fish, the clamour of vendors hawking their wares, neat, brightly coloured piles of fruits and vegetables, and dozens of small shops selling everything from plastic tubs to auto spares. It's just off Creek Rd, and at its best in the morning before the heat and the crowds, when everything is still fresh.
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Mole National Park
It's not everywhere you can get up close and personal with bus-sized elephants. Face-to-face encounters with these beasts, plus roving gangs of baboons, warthogs, water bucks and antelopes - 90 species of mammals in total - are possibilities at this national park, Ghana's largest at 4660 sq km and best as far as wildlife viewing goes.
It consists for the most part of flat savanna, with gallery forests along the rivers and streams.
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Watamu Turtle Watch
Several species of marine turtle lay their eggs on the beaches around Watamu and Watamu Turtle Watch, part of the Local Ocean Trust, has set up a series of initiatives with local people to protect these threatened animals. Female turtles lay thousands of eggs here between January and April. Contact the trust's Marine Information Centre if you're interested in seeing this incredible natural spectacle or volunteering with local projects.
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Musée National
About 1km north of Le Plateau market is the Musée National . It has a very dusty collection of over 20,000 objects, including wooden statues and masks, pottery, ivory and bronze.
Just more than 1km (0,6mi) north of Le Plateau market is the Musée National. It has a collection of over 20,000 objects, including wooden statues and masks, pottery, ivory and bronze. Many of the buses heading for Adjamé pass nearby.
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Kigali Memorial Centre
The Kigali Memorial Centre is a must for all visitors in Rwanda wanting to learn more about how it was that the world watched as a genocide unfolded in this tiny landlocked country. More than a memorial for Kigali, more than a memorial for Rwanda and its tragedy, this is a memorial for all of us, marking the Rwandan genocide and many more around the world that never should have come to pass.
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Telkom Tower
Dominated by the 269m Telkom Tower, Hillbrow was once among the liveliest and most interesting suburbs in the city and was the nation’s first ‘Grey Area’ – a zone where blacks and whites could live side by side. These days, however, it also has a reputation for very real lawlessness and a trip into its guts, without an extremely savvy guide, is not recommended.
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Katutura
Unlike its South African counterparts, the township of Katutura is relatively safe by day if you stick to the northern areas and/or find a local who can act as a guide. An especially interesting spot is the informal Soweto Market, where traders sell just about anything imaginable. A shared taxi from the Wernhill Park Centre to Katutura costs around US$1 per person.
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National Museum
Kenya's National Museum is an imposing building amid lush leafy grounds just outside the city centre. It has a good range of cultural, geological and natural-history exhibits. Volunteer guides offer tours in English, Dutch and French. The 1st floor contains excellent contemporary East African art; as all the items are for sale the displays change regularly.
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Volubilis
Volubilis is the site of the largest and best-preserved Roman ruins in Morocco. Dating largely from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, excavations have revealed that the site was originally settled by Carthaginian traders even earlier. At its peak, it is estimated that the city housed up to 20,000 people. Take a guide, a hat and plenty of water. Magical at dusk.
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