La Haute Ville d’Antananarivo

The Upper Town of the Malagasy capital Antananarivo (Tana) is an architectural mix of Asian and European influences, following the tastes of the country’s royal and political elite during the 19th century. It lies on top of the highest hill of Tana, a daunting city with millions of inhabitants that developed like an inverted La Paz. Here the ‘important’ people started living uphill, and the further you go down the poorer it gets. It felt perfectly safe to walk around in the Upper Town by myself. Only near the Rova (the Queen’s palace) I encountered some wannabe guides, but they quickly gave up offering their services when I ignored them.

As I was staying in a guesthouse already halfway uphill, I covered the area on foot all the way. If you come from the lower areas of Tana, such as near the lake, it would be advisable to take a taxi to the Rova and then walk down. My walk started with some 300 steps up the historical Escalier Tavao – in the early morning, this is used as an outdoor gym by the muscular boys of the city. They help each other with their routines, such as doing squats all the way up and down.

Once you’ve finished the stairs, the remaining route is fairly easy. In total, I walked only 7km during the 3.5 hours that I spent in the area. A good first stop along the way is the Museum of Photography: a modern building …