From the World Heritage inscription: The Island of Gorée testifies to an unprecedented human experience in the history of humanity. Indeed, for the universal conscience, this “memory island” is the symbol of the slave trade with its cortege of suffering, tears, and death. The painful memories of the Atlantic slave trade are crystallized in this …
From the World Heritage inscription: The capital of the Almoravids and the Almohads played a decisive role in the development of medieval planning. Marrakesh (which gave its name to the Moroccan Empire) is the textbook example of a large Islamic capital in the Western world. With its maze of narrow streets, houses, souks (markets), traditional …
From the World Heritage inscription: In a mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia, some 645 km from Addis Ababa, eleven medieval monolithic churches were carved out of rock. Their building is attributed to King Lalibela who set out to construct in the 12th century a ‘New Jerusalem’ after Muslim conquests halted Christian pilgrimages to …
Aksum is the most significant pilgrimage site in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and one of the largest tourist attractions in the country. Aksum is important for several reasons: It was the seat of the Axumite Empire, which reached its peak in the first millennium. The Axumite Civilization was one of the largest and most important …
Usually, I write about the history, the mystery, and the grandeur of a place like the pyramids. For over 4,000 years the pyramids have been one of the best-known structures on Earth. We’ve probably all seen TV shows, read books, or perhaps wrote a fourth-grade report on them, so there is nothing I can really …
South Africa is a country that’s hard to forget once you’ve visited. It’s a place of breathtaking beauty: miles of coastline, glittering sand dunes, towering mountains, and rich biodiversity make it a draw for tourists from all over the world. The political and cultural history adds additional nuance, making a destination that’s immensely explorable. Although …
The tsingy of Madagascar ate the thin, needle-like rock formations in the country with have a soft, sweet sing-song name. As I teetered with one foot on a knife-edge and the other in the air, the word soft didn’t come into it. I gripped the tsingy and tried not to look down—a long, long way …
Egypt had long been a place I was eager to visit, it was high on my travel bucket list during my previous two years of traveling the world. The Pyramids of Giza and the other Egyptian ruins are some of the most ancient remnants of human civilization. Visiting Egypt didn’t disappoint. Despite a rather negative …
More than 12 million tourists visited Morocco in 2018, and their numbers are certain to increase in 2019. And why not? This North African kingdom calls up to most foreigners an image of medieval mosques, archaic bazaars filled with handmade crafts, and medinas—those labyrinths of narrow alleys behind ancient walls. In Morocco, historic monuments seem …