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Antananarivo

Capital of MadagascarAntananarivo stands about 1,280 m up in Madagascar's Central Highlands, on a long, narrow, rocky ridge above wide rice fields. It is about 160 km from the east coast and 330 km from the west coast.

Why it's the capital

Merina kings made it their royal seat around 1610. As the Merina kingdom took control of more than two-thirds of the island in the early 1800s, the city became the capital of Madagascar, and it stayed the capital under French rule from 1897 and after independence in 1960.

Fun facts

  1. Its name means "City of the Thousand", in honour of King Andrianjaka's soldiers, and people often shorten it to Tana.
  2. A fire in 1995 swept the royal palace compound, the Rova, and only the stone shell of its largest palace survived; that building was restored and re-roofed by 2009.
  3. Jacaranda trees planted in French colonial times bloom around Lake Anosy every October.

Finding it on the globe

Put your finger in the middle of Madagascar, the big island off south-east Africa, then nudge it a little toward the east coast.

Sources: Wikipedia: Antananarivo