Antananarivo travel guide

Top 10 sights in Antananarivo

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© Olivier Lejade · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Ambohimanga

   The hill and royal compound of the Merina kings, twenty-four kilometres from the capital and World Heritage since 2001. Andrianampoinimerina's wooden house of the 1780s stands inside the stone enclosure, and the site is still used for sacrifice and prayer.

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2. 

   2© Dalbergiaada · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Rova of Antananarivo

   The palace compound of the Merina sovereigns on the highest hill of Antananarivo, its stone casing added by a Scottish missionary-builder in 1867. Fire gutted it in 1995; the restoration is complete and the site is open again.

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3. 

   3© Maky (Alex Dunkel) · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Andafiavaratra Palace

   The residence of Rainilaiarivony, the prime minister who married three queens in succession and ran Madagascar for thirty years. It is now a museum holding the fourteen hundred royal objects rescued from the palace fire of 1995.

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4. 

   4

   Iavoloha Palace

   The presidential residence, fifteen kilometres south of the capital, built in the 1970s as a gift from North Korea and loosely modelled on the royal rova in Antananarivo. It has been the seat of government since the Rova burned in 1995.

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5. 

   5© HoneyGaLe · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Antananarivo

   The Catholic cathedral of Antananarivo, in the upper town at Andohalo — the square where the Merina sovereigns addressed their people and where Christians were executed in the 1830s.

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6. 

   6© Woodlouse from Brighton, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Botanical and Zoological Garden of Tsimbazaza

   A zoo and botanical garden below the parliament, holding the best collection of Madagascar's wildlife in the country. Its museum keeps skeletons of the elephant bird, the dwarf hippopotamus and the giant lemurs, all extinct since people arrived.

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7. 

   7© Fanja37 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Lemurs' Park

   A five-hectare reserve twenty-two kilometres from the capital, founded in 2000, where nine species of lemur live free among planted native trees. It is the easiest place in Madagascar to see them without a long drive.

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8. 

   8© M.ranarivelo · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Saint Laurent's Cathedral, Ambohimanoro

   The Anglican cathedral of Antananarivo, on the Ambohimanoro hill near Andohalo, and now protected as a national heritage building. The Anglican mission reached Madagascar in the 1860s, in competition with the London Missionary Society already established here.

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9. 

   9© Anai171 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   FJKM Tranovato Ambatonakanga

   A Protestant church in Antananarivo, Madagascar. It belongs to the FJKM, the country's main Reformed church; consecrated in 1867, it was the first stone church built on the island.

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10. 

    10© Alno · CC BY-SA 4.0

    FJKM Rasalama Maritiora Ambohipotsy

    A Reformed church at Ambohipotsy in Antananarivo, Madagascar. It was raised in 1868 on the spot where Rafaravavy Rasalama was martyred on 14 August 1837.

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