Serra Malagueta (Chili/Pepper Mountains) is a mountain range located in the north of Santiago, and together with the one around Pico da Antónia (1394 m), the highest peak on the island, it is an important rain catcher. Because of its mountainous interior, the biggest island of the archipelago with the most inhabitants receives more rain […]
Kategorie: architecture
Assomada
Assomada lies at 550 m elevation on a plateau in the centre of the island of Santiago amidst a picturesque mountain scenery. Therefore, the climate is cooler and thus more pleasant than in muggy Praia, and the surrounding landscape is characterized by farmland as well as the nearby mountains of Serra Malagueta in the background. […]
Cidade Velha
In 1462, Antonio da Noli, an Italian seafarer exploring the Atlantic Ocean for the Portuguese, built a settlement at the exit auf Ribeira Grande, a beautiful valley at the south coast of the island of Santiago. This is the beginning of human history on the archipelago as the settlement started to flourish, being granted the […]
Praia
With approximately around 160.000 or even more inhabitants, Cape Verde´s capital Praia is by far the biggest city not only on the island of Santiago, but in the whole country. It might look like some Peruvian or Bolivian city in the Andes, but it is not – unfortunately. Then it wouldn´t be so bloody hot […]
Barotseland & Zambezi floodplains – Barotseland & die Sambesi-Flutebene
The floodplains along Zambezi River in Zambia’s west are vast plains that get flooded for a few months every rainy season between April and June or July. Clusters of trees mark slightly higher ground, and those are the places the Lozi people use to build their small settlements. It is a remarkable fact that flooding […]
Kariba dam wall – Die Kariba-Talsperre
A few kilometres east of Siavonga lies the Kariba dam wall with the road to Zimbabwe. The construction of the dam wall was planned in 1955 by the government of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, under the name of Central African Federation (CAF) a part of the Commonwealth. Preparation work started the same year. […]
Lusaka
Zambia’s capital Lusaka with its 2,2 Million residents is one of those typical bland African capitals (or big cities) conceived on the drawing board, projected, artificial, thrown together. Despite the poverty in Zambia as well as the migration into the city, Lusaka comes across as a quite relaxed place. Where the towns of the Copperbelt […]
Vohemar (Iharana)
Vohemar, also referred to as Iharana, is the northernmost town in Madagascar’s north-eastern SAVA region. It is located right at the Indian ocean and vast Iharana bay which is subjected to the tides. Historically, Vohemar seems to be one of Madagascar´s oldest settlements, if not the oldest, where Swahili merchants installed a port for trading […]
Andapa
Andapa is the only of the four major towns in SAVA region to be situated away from the Indian ocean 100 km southwest of Sambava. It has around 30.000 inhabitants of whom 90% are farmers, mainly cultivating rice. The place is ideal for that because of its location at the eponymous basin to where all […]
Vola Maitso, Bemarivo river & Soavoanio Coconut plantation – Vola Maitso, der Bemarivo-Fluss und die Soavoanio Kokosnuss-Plantage
Vola Maitso is a cooperative of farmers growing and selling cocoa, vanilla, pepper, cloves, coconuts, and fruits in a picturesque landscape a few kilometres north of Sambava. They practice a sustainable form of agriculture, combining the cultivation of different plants in an ecological way – without chopping off trees till there is nothing left. Unfortunately, […]
