A surprisingly good road, interrupted only by a few potholes and damaged sections (304 km / 6 hours / toll fee 2x 3 USD), brought us from Bulawayo to Great Zimbabwe—the magnificent ruins of a sprawling medieval stone city that served as the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe between the...
Today, we were invited by Ian Harmer (📞+263 772 224 069) from African Wanderer to explore Matobo National Park, located just 35 km south of Bulawayo. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park is renowned for its spectacular granite balancing rocks, extensive San rock art, and one of...
Today, we took an InDrive taxi (20 USD) and travelled along the Old Khami Road, approximately 22 kilometres west of Bulawayo, to visit the Khami Ruins, Zimbabwe’s second-largest ancient stone settlement. Once the capital of the Torwa dynasty between the 15th and 17th centuries, this...
The history of Aksum centres on a powerful kingdom in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea that flourished from approximately the 1st to the 8th centuries AD. Aksum was a central commercial hub controlling trade routes connecting the Roman Empire, India, and the Red Sea, and its port of Adulis...
We took a branch road to reach an ancient pre-Aksumite temple dedicated to the South Arabian moon god Almaqah. The temple dates to around the 7th century BC and is known for its remarkably well-preserved, mortise-and-tenon construction using dressed stone blocks without mortar. The temple...
On our way to Berbera, we made a stop and a short off-road drive to Laas Geel, a cave complex famous for ancient rock paintings dating back to the Neolithic period, roughly 9,000 to 3,000 BCE (🎟️35 USD, paid in office in Hargeisa). Other sources suggest a date of around 6,000 years ago...
After some heavy searching, we finally found Dhagah Kureh, located about 45 kilometres northwest of Hargeisa. It is a significant Neolithic rock art site, known for its extensive ancient paintings that provide insight into the lives of early pastoralist communities. Situated among granite...
We made a short stop at a cluster of carved megalithic stelae (standing stones) in a graveyard near the town of Tutu Fella in southern Ethiopia. These 9th-14th century monuments are funerary markers for local aristocrats, many of which feature carved linear, anthropomorphic (human-like)...
Kolo Rock Art Sites, also known as Kondoa Rock Art Sites, in central Tanzania, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring a vast collection of ancient rock paintings and carvings dating back over 1,500 years, with the oldest paintings potentially as old as 30,000 years. The art provides a...
On our way to Dodoma, we made a short stop at Igeleke to see ancient rock paintings. We hired a tuk-tuk to get to the site (5,000 TZS) and picked up a man with keys (🎟️10,000 TZS; 📞+255766662777, 📞+255763540698)) on our way there. The ochre drawings depict human figures, an elephant, a...