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Tag Archives: africa

Medina: One of Tunisia’s Great Treasures

This sprawling maze of ancient streets and alleyways is one of the most impressive medieval medinas in North Africa and one of Tunisia’s great treasures. It’s home to numerous covered souqs selling everything from shoes to shisha pipes, as well as bustling cafes, back streets full of artisans at work …

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Egypt: Great Temple of Ramses II

Carved out of the mountain on the west bank of the Nile between 1274 and 1244 BC, this imposing main temple of the Abu Simbel complex was as much dedicated to the deified Ramses II himself as to Ra-Horakhty, Amun and Ptah. The four colossal statues of the pharaoh, which front the …

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Egypt: St Catherine’s Monastery

This ancient monastery traces its founding to about AD 330, when Byzantine empress Helena had a small chapel and a fortified refuge for local hermits built beside what was believed to be the burning bush from which God spoke to Moses. Today St Catherine’s is considered one of the oldest …

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Algeria: Timgad

One of the finest Roman sites in existence, the ruins of Timgad stretch almost as far as the eye can see over a plain that in winter is cold and desolate and in summer hot and tinder-dry. Its perfect preservation has made it a Unesco World Heritage Site – take …

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Kenya: Where the wind blows

We’re taking a look through our archive of travel writing to highlight all the ways the world has changed, as well as some of the ways it’s stayed the same. In this travel essay from 2011, Amanda Canning reports on the archipelago of Lamu, just off the coast of Kenya, where medieval …

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Egypt: Pyramids of Giza

The last remaining wonder of the ancient world; for nearly 4000 years, the extraordinary shape, impeccable geometry and sheer bulk of the Giza Pyramids have invited the obvious questions: ‘How were we built, and why?’. Centuries of research have given us parts of the answer. Built as massive tombs on …

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