Sights in Africa
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Kachikaly Crocodile Pool
Kachikaly Crocodile Pool is a sacred site for locals, some of whom come here to pray, as the crocodiles represent the power of fertility. Success rates are apparently high and the 80 fully grown crocodiles and 'countless' smaller ones are protected. A popular tourist spot too, it's probably the nearest you'll ever safely get to a croc!
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Timgad
Nothing in the surrounding area – certainly nothing in concrete-clad Batna, the jumping-off point 40km away – prepares you for the grandeur of Timgad. Even the entrance is deceptive, a large car park, a line of trees, a museum and then… an entire Roman town. At first sight it may seem just a vast field of stones and rubble, but walk around, take the time, inhabit the place, and Timgad will more than repay the effort. Whatever happened at this site before AD 100 is of little consequence: the story of Timgad begins in grand style when the Emperor Trajan decided to build a colony for soldiers and veterans of his Legion III Augusta. The Colonia Marciana Traiana Thamugadi,…
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Amun Temple Enclosure - Main Axis
The most important place of worship at Karnak was the massive Amun Temple Enclosure (Precinct of Amun), dominated by the great Temple of Amun-Ra, which contains the famous hypostyle hall, a spectacular forest of giant papyrus-shaped columns. On its southern side is the Mut Temple Enclosure, once linked to the main temple by an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes. To the north is the Montu Temple Enclosure, which honoured the local Theban war god.
The 3km-long paved avenue of human-headed sphinxes that once linked the great Temple of Amun at Karnak with Luxor Temple, is now again being cleared.
The Quay of Amun was the dock where the large boats carrying the statues of the gods…
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Djemila Ruins
Djemila is small enough to allow you to walk around the entire site comfortably in half a day. But spend longer here, linger in the temples and markets, stroll through the bath chambers, or just lie down on one of the pavements or in the shade of villa walls (as a number of locals were doing during our visit); the magic will be felt and this unique place will be better understood. The museum is to the left on entering the site and is best visited before the ruins. At quiet times, it is kept locked, but will be opened if you ask at the entrance to the site. Outside the museum building there are many tombstones and other funerary sculptures, the outer walls lined with…
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Royal Enclosure
It's hard not to notice Gonder's impressive Royal Enclosure, with its castles and high stone walls sitting streetside. The entire 70,000-sq-metre site (also known as Fasil Ghebbi) was declared a World Heritage site by Unesco in 1979.
Free 90-minute guided tours (a tip will be expected) are worthwhile and available weekdays. On weekends, you can hire a local licensed guide near the gate.
Almost completely restored with the help of Unesco, Fasiladas' Palace (in the compound's south) is the oldest and most impressive castle. It stands 32m tall and has a crenulated parapet and four domed towers. Made of roughly hewn stones, it's reputedly the work of an Indian architect, and…
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Tiddis
Although it in no way compares to the splendour of Djemila, the Roman town of Tiddis makes a great day trip from Constantine. The guardian will appear at your arrival to sell you a ticket and may want you to pay for guiding services. Drinks and snacks are sometimes available, but you should be sure at least to bring your own water in summer. There was a settlement on this site from early times, at least since the Neolithic Berbers, but it was the Romans who developed Castellum Tidditanorum, which, as its name suggests, was a castellum or fortress, one of a series of fortified villages that surrounded the larger settlement at Constantine (then Cirta) and protected its…
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Lambèse-Tazoult
The road from Batna towards Timgad and Khenchela makes a slight detour around the modern village of Tazoult, infamous as the location of a high-security prison, the latest incarnation of a penitentiary built by the French in 1855. But military presence here goes back much further than the French because all around (and beneath) Tazoult lie the remains of a settlement that once served as the capital of Roman Numidia and was, for a long time, the partner and sometime rival of nearby Timgad. Lambaesis has disappeared from most itineraries and, if seen at all by visitors, it is usually glimpsed from the window of a car or bus as they shuttle between Batna and Timgad. There…
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Monastery of St Anthony
This historic monastery traces its origins to the 4th century AD when monks began to settle at the foot of Gebel al-Galala al-Qibliya, where their spiritual leader, Anthony, lived. Over the next few centuries, the community moved from being a loosely organised grouping of hermits to a somewhat more communal existence in which the monks continued to live anchoritic lives, but in cells grouped together inside a walled compound.
In the 8th and 9th centuries, the monastery suffered Bedouin raids, followed in the 11th century by attacks from irate Muslims, and in the 15th century, a revolt by bloodthirsty servants that resulted in the massacre of the monks. The small mud-brick…
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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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Abu Ruins
A path through the garden behind the Aswan Museum leads to the evocative ruins of ancient Abu. Swiss and German teams, excavating here since the early 20th century, have made the site into an outdoor museum. Numbered plaques and reconstructed buildings mark the island's long history from around 3000 BC to the 14th century AD.
The largest structure in the site is the partially reconstructed Temple of Khnum (plaque Nos 6, 12 and 13). Built in honour of the God of Inundation during the Old Kingdom, it was added to and used for over 1500 years before being extensively rebuilt in Ptolemaic times. Other highlights include a small 4th-dynasty step pyramid, thought to have been…
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Colossi of Memnon
The two faceless Colossi of Memnon that rise majestically about 18m from the plain are the first monuments tourists see when they visit the West Bank. The enthroned figures have kept a lonely vigil on the changing landscape, and few visitors have any idea that these giants were only a tiny element of the largest temple ever built in Egypt, Amenhotep III's memorial temple, believed to have covered an area larger than Karnak.
The pharaoh's memorial temple has now all but disappeared. It was built largely of mud brick on the flood plain of the Nile, where it was flooded every year. The walls simply dissolved after it was abandoned and no longer maintained, and later pharaohs…
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Great Mosque
The Great Mosque, in the northeast corner of the medina, is North Africa's holiest Islamic site. It's also known as Sidi Okba Mosque, after the founder of Kairouan who built the first mosque here in AD 670. The original version was completely destroyed, and most of what stands today was built by the Aghlabids in the 9th century. Entry is with the multiple-site ticket.
The exterior, with its buttressed walls, has a typically unadorned Aghlabid design. Impressions change once you step into the huge marble-paved courtyard, surrounded by an arched colonnade. The courtyard was designed for water catchment, and the paving slopes towards an intricately decorated central drainage…
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Mosque & Tomb of Sidi Boumediene
About 1.6km southeast of the centre, as the crow flies, lies one of Algeria’s most beautiful complexes, the Mosque & Tomb of Sidi Boumediene, restored by craftsmen from Fès in 1986. Abu Madyan Shu’ayb ibn al-Husayn al-Ansari, to give him his full name, was born near Seville around 1115 and studied with Islamic mystics in Morocco before settling in Bejaya on the north Algerian coast and creating his own Sufi circle. A mystic, poet and man of great integrity – he was called the Sheikh of Sheikhs and the Nurturer – Abu Madyan, or Sidi Boumediene, as the Algerians call him, died in Tlemcen in 1197, on his way back to Marrakech. His tomb has become a place of pilgrimage and…
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Northern Cemetery
The Northern Cemetery is the more interesting half of a vast necropolis known popularly as the City of the Dead. The titillating name refers to the fact that the cemeteries are not only resting places for Cairo's dead, but for the living too. Visitors expecting morbid squalor may be disappointed; the area, complete with power lines, a post office and multistorey buildings, is more 'town' than 'shanty'.
Some estimates put the number of living Cairenes here at 50,000; others, at 10 times this number. As Max Rodenbeck notes in Cairo: The City Victorious, some of the tomb dwellers, especially the paid guardians and their families, have lived here for generations. Others have…
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Temple of Seti I
The first structure you'll see at Abydos is the striking Cenotaph or Great Temple of Seti I, which, after a certain amount of restoration work, is one of the most complete temples in Egypt. This great limestone structure, unusually L-shaped rather than rectangular, was dedicated to the six major gods - Osiris, Isis and Horus, Amun-Ra, Ra-Horakhty and Ptah - and also to Seti I (1294-1279 BC) himself.
In the aftermath of the Amarna Period, it is a clear statement of a return to the old ways. As you roam through Seti's dark halls and sanctuaries an air of mystery surrounds you.
The temple is entered through a largely destroyed pylon and two courtyards, built by Seti I's son…
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Carthage
Founded by Phoenicians and home of Hannibal, Carthage was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. The site retains its natural splendour, with lush vegetation and superb views over the gulf. Highlights are the museum and excavated quarter atop Byrsa Hill, the Antonine baths, the Punic ports, the Roman amphitheatre and the Sanctuary of Tophet.
Despite Carthage's fascinating history and the position of dominance it held in the ancient world, the Romans did such a thorough job demolishing it that the ruins today are something of a disappointment. Most of what remains is of Roman origin. There are six main sights spread out over a wide area. The TGM (light rail) line…
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Fort Jesus
Mombasa's biggest tourist attraction, Fort Jesus dominates the harbour entrance at the end of Nkrumah Rd. The metre-thick coral walls make it an imposing edifice, despite being partially ruined. The fort was built by the Portuguese in 1593 to enforce their rule over the coastal Swahilis, but they rarely managed to hold onto it for long. It changed hands at least nine times in bloody sieges between 1631 and 1875, finally falling under British control. It houses a museum, built over the former barracks. The exhibits are mostly ceramics, reflecting the variety of cultures that traded along the coast, but include other interesting odds and ends donated from private…
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Amun Temple Enclosure - Southern Axis
The secondary axis of the Amun Temple Enclosure, running south from the third and fourth pylons, is a walled processional way from the seventh to the tenth pylon, leading to the Mut Temple Enclosure. The courtyard between the Hypostyle Hall and the seventh pylon, built by Tuthmosis III, is known as the cachette court, as thousands of stone and bronze statues were discovered here in 1903.
The priests had the old statues and temple furniture they no longer needed buried around 300 BC. Most statues were sent to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but some remained, standing in front of the seventh pylon, including four of Tuthmosis III on the left.
The well-preserved eighth pylon,…
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Zoser's Funerary Complex
The hypostyle hall leads into the Great South Court, a huge open area flanking the south side of the pyramid, with a section of wall featuring a frieze of cobras. The cobra, or uraeus, represented the goddess Wadjet, a fire-spitting agent of destruction and protector of the pharaoh. It was a symbol of Egyptian royalty, and a rearing cobra always appeared on the brow of a pharaoh's headdress or crown.
Near the base of the pyramid is an altar, and in the centre of the court are two stone B-shaped boundary markers, which delineated the ritual race the pharaoh had to run, a literal demonstration of his fitness to rule. The race was part of the Jubilee Festival, or Heb-Sed,…
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Tombs of Kings Kaleb & Gebre Meskel
Set on a small hill and offering views of the distant jagged mountains of Adwa are the monumental Tombs of Kings Kaleb & Gebre Meskel . According to local tradition, they're attributed to the 6th-century King Kaleb and his son, King Gebre Meskel. Kaleb was one of Aksum's most important rulers and succeeded in bringing southern Arabia under Aksumite rule.
Although the twin tombs' architecture resembles the Tomb of the False Door, they actually show more sophistication, using irregular-shaped self-locking stones that don't require iron clamps. The 19th-century British traveller Theodore Bent exclaimed magnanimously that the tombs were 'built with a regularity which if found…
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Moro-Naba Palace Ceremony
Such is the influence of the Moro-Naba of Ouagadougou, the emperor of the Mossi and the most powerful traditional chief in Burkina Faso, that the government will still make a show of consulting him before making any major decision. The portly present Moro-Naba (the 37th) is, typically for his dynasty, an imposing figure.
The Moro-Naba ceremony (la cérémonie du Nabayius Gou), takes place every Friday at the Moro-Naba Palace. It's a very formal ritual that lasts only about 15 minutes. Prominent Mossis arrive by taxi, car and moped (also known as mobylettes), greet each other and sit on the ground according to rank: in the first row sit the Moro-Naba's spokesman and his…
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Pyramid of Unas
What appears to be another big mound of rubble to the southwest of Zoser's funerary complex, is actually the 2375-2345 BC Pyramid of Unas, the last pharaoh of the 5th dynasty. Built only 300 years after the inspired creation of the Step Pyramid, this unassuming pile of loose blocks and debris once stood 43m high.
From the outside, the Pyramid of Unas is not much to look at, though the interior marked the beginning of a significant development in funerary practices. For the first time, the royal burial chamber was decorated, its ceiling adorned with stars and its white alabaster-lined walls inscribed with beautiful blue hieroglyphs.
The aforementioned hieroglyphs are the…
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Aswan High Dam
Egypt's modern example of construction on a monumental scale, the controversial Aswan High Dam contains 18 times the amount of material used in the Great Pyramid of Khufu and created Lake Nasser, the world's largest artificial lake.
From the 1940s, it was clear that the old Aswan Dam, which only regulated the flow of water, was not big enough to counter the unpredictable annual flooding of the Nile. In 1952, when Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power, plans were drawn up for a new dam, 6km south of the old one, but from the start there were political and engineering difficulties. In 1956, after the World Bank refused the promised loan for the project, Nasser ordered the…
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Grand Hôtel Villa de France
To the north of Place de France in Ville Nouvelle, down Rue de la Liberté, stands the closed and crumbling Grand Hôtel Villa de France. The French painter Eugène Delacroix stayed here in 1832, when it really was a grand hotel. His fellow artist and compatriot, Henri Matisse, followed in the early 1900s.
Of the many artists who have passed through Tangier, Matisse is one of the most famous. The French impressionist and leading light of the early 20th-century Fauvist movement called Tangier a 'painter's paradise'. His two visits to the city, in the spring of 1912 and again the following winter, had a profound influence on his work.
Inspired by the luminous North African…
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Elephantine Island
Elephantine Island is the site of ancient Abu (meaning both elephant and ivory in ancient Egyptian), both names a reminder of the island's once important ivory trade. At the beginning of the 1st dynasty (about 3000 BC) a fortress was built on the island to establish Egypt's southern frontier. Abu soon became an important customs point and trading centre.
It remained strategically significant throughout the Pharaonic period as a departure point for the military and commercial expeditions into Nubia and the south. During the 6th dynasty (2345-2181 BC) Abu grew strong as a political and economic centre and, despite periodic ups and downs, the island retained its importance…
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