Ambohimanga
Antananarivo Province, Madagascar
The Royal Hill of Ambohimanga, a fortified royal settlement and burial ground of the Merina kings and queens near Antananarivo, one of the twelve sacred hills of Imerina and actively venerated today.
Twenty-four kilometers from Antananarivo rises a fortified royal village, the rova of Ambohimanga, containing royal tombs, a sacrificial stone used at certain holidays, and the base from which King Andrianampoinimerina launched his conquest of the other hills of Imerina at the end of the eighteenth century. The kings and queens who united Madagascar came from here and returned here; the royal bath place belongs to the ritual landscape, and the hill is one of the twelve sacred hills of Imerina. UNESCO inscribed it in 2001.
The site is actively venerated: Malagasy pilgrims come to the tombs and the sacred places, and traditional fady, taboos, govern parts of the hill. It is a managed heritage site and a living place of worship at once, and the entry treats the tombs as what they are to the people who still honor them.
Visiting
The UNESCO listing describes the site; it is open Tuesday through Sunday, 9-11am and 2-5pm, closed Mondays, with an entrance fee reported around 7,000 Ariary (verify on arrival).
Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ambohimanga_(3189638857).jpg), CC BY-SA 2.0, mwanasimba.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories