Our beautiful world – Africa
There are a lot of beautiful places in the world. Nature has formed the landscape as we know it today. Humans have settled down and improved the landscape with architecture. In this article, we’ll take a look at some examples of this from Africa. These are ten of the most special places on the continent.
Ørken i Marokko
1. Sahara | Africa
The Sahara covers more than 9.2 million square kilometres and lies in ten countries. It is only the third largest desert in the world, after Antarctica and the Arctic. But it is the world’s largest hot desert.
In the desert, you can find areas with rocks called hamada and also mountains. Between the cliffs, there are small areas of sand dunes. The most impressive of these can be found in Morocco.
The sand dunes in Erg Chebbi in Morocco are not a true desert but a part of the sub-Saharan region. But it looks like the real Sahara. The dunes are around 40 kilometres long and about eight kilometres from east to west. It is a beautiful sight with a lot of colours.
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Sahara-ørkenen
2. Kilimanjaro | Tanzania
Kilimanjaro is a very popular height for people to climb. It is 4900 metres high and 5895 metres above sea level. The sleeping volcano, which is located in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro National Park welcomes 25,000 climbers each year. You’ll also find a rainforest, a mountain desert and cultivated land.
When you’re as high up as this, distances will fool you. Even if something seems to be close, it can take hours to get there. With all the plants and animals here, it is idyllic and peaceful.
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Kilimanjaro og elefanter
3. Spitzkoppe | Namibia
Namibia is a country with huge horizons, deserts and African wildlife. In the West, you find a huge land where a group of bald granite heights stands out. This has been used in films as the place where people discovered tools.
This is Spitzkoppe, which means “pointed dome.” It is an oasis of red rounded heights that stretch 1,784 metres into the air. The mountain has been nicknamed ‘Africa’s Matterhorn’ and is a mecca for climbers.
The bushmen, who were hunters in 2000 BC, left behind stone objects and rock art that were supposed to bring rain.
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4. Victoria falls | Zambia and Zimbabwe
Before you find Victoria Falls, you can see a fantastic 108-metre waterfall in the Zambezi River in Southern Africa. You will also hear sound from the water that flows over the edge of dark volcanic rock.
Victoria Falls got their name from the Scottish explorer David Livingstone in 1855. The waterfall lies on both sides of the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It transforms a calm river to a noisy waterfall with a lot of water.
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5. The Pyramids | Egypt
In the world, there are seven places that are known for their greatness.
The Colossus of Rhodes, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Great Pyramids of Giza make up the Seven Wonders of the World.
All the seven wonders were of greatness, but today there is only one of them who is completely intact. This is the oldest of the seven ones: the Great Pyramids of Giza.
This wonder consists of three pyramids: the Pyramid of Khufu, the Pyramid of Khefren and the Pyramid of Menkaure. Next to them is The Great Sphinx of Giza. The pyramid of Khufu is the oldest and the largest, with a height of 138.8 metres. It took 20 years to build it, and it was finished in 2560 BC.
For many years people thought that the pyramids were built by aliens because of the style. But it is more likely that Cheops’ vizier Hemiunu was the architect. People are still talking about the technique and experts say that they would have had to lift around 800 limestone blocks every day in the burning sun.
For almost 4,000 years, the Great Pyramid was the tallest structure in the world. This was until skyscrapers came. The Great Pyramid was at first dressed in stone, which gave it a smooth surface.
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Pyramidene i Egypt
6. Table Mountain | South-Africa
When you look at Cape Town, South Africa’s capital, from Table Mountain, you will get a fantastic view. You can not only see Table Mountain National Park, but also Table Bay, the Twelve Apostles Mountain Range, the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Mitchells Plain and the Cape Flats.
Sometimes it is also possible to see Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years. You can also see Cape Town Stadium, which was built for the football World Cup in 2010.
An animal called the cape cliff badger is common on Table Mountain’s Dassie Walk, and it is known as the dassie. It looks like a small hare but is in the same family as the elephant. On Table Mountain, you’ll also find hedgehogs, mongooses, snakes, lizards, turtles and the ghost frog that can only be seen on Table Mountain.
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Table Mountain i Sør-Afrika
7. Serengeti | Tanzania
1.5 million wildebeest animals run over the fields of the Serengeti in Tanzania. They move on a 1,931km trip to the green meadows of Masai Mara in Kenya. It is the largest movement of animals in the world. The wildebeest are joined by zebras and gazelles. It is one of the wonders of life and nature.
The Serengeti National Park is a huge reserve that has existed since 1951. It got UNESCO World Heritage status 30 years later. It has been debated since the British moved the Maasai people off their land. But they managed to save the wildlife. This is home to the largest population of lions in the world, and you’ll also find African leopards, African savannah elephants, pronghorns and African buffalos.
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Serengeti i Tanzania
8. Tsingy de Bemeraha | Madagascar
Madagascar’s stone formation is a fantastic place for animals. The island is the fourth largest in the world. On the island, you can find hundreds of different birds, frogs, lizards, reptiles and insects. Thanks to this, the island is called “the eighth continent.”
A rock forest called “tsingy” is a landscape of limestone formation. There are also several animals here and this is a very unusual place.
It was formed from shells and corals over 200 million years ago, and the limestone formations grew from the bottom of the sea. It has become a huge landscape with sharp stone towers and trees that rise from the ground.
This UNESCO World Heritage Site is so mysterious that most of it wasn’t evaluated until the 1990s when the Antsika Association was started to help protect the country. They worked together with the locals to build and get trained so they could guide tourists safely.
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Tsingy de Bemaraha i Madagaskar
9. Lalibela | Ethiopia
To understand how amazing Lalibela in Ethiopia is, you need to know some history. In the 12th century, King Gebre Mesqel Lailibela decided to build what he called ‘a new Jerusalem’. This was after Muslims stopped Christian journeys to the Holy Land.
Eleven churches were carved out of the mountain about 645 kilometres from Addis Ababa. It was a big project, and they also made a large labyrinth of different natural materials.
The churches were split into two main groups; five were built on the north side of the river Jordan, and the other six were built on the south side. Bete Giyorgis, the eleventh church, was built a little bit away but is connected through ditches. Each year on Ethiopian holidays, thousands of pilgrims make the pilgrimage there.
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Lalibela i Etiopia
10. The Nile | Africa
A cruise along the Nile is an amazing experience. The title of the longest river in the world is often given to the Amazon River, but the Guinness Book of World Records says that it belongs to the Nile. The Nile is the longest river on the African continent with its 6,695 kilometres.
Only about a fifth of the river passes through Egypt, but it is Egypt that people think of when we talk about the Nile. But there are a lot of things to see, for example, high and low mountains, dry deserts, rainforests and different kinds of animals.
Along the Nile in Uganda, you’ll find the beautiful Murchison Falls National Park. The park is the largest in the country and home to many exotic animals including lions, crocodiles, hippopotamuses and giraffes. There is also an impressive waterfall of 42 metres.
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Sources:
- 101 steder du må oppleve (før du dør) (2020)
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