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506 results in the libraryPage 11 of 22506 results in the library · Fun facts · Page 11 of 22
Timbuktu's private libraries preserved hundreds of thousands of manuscripts on astronomy, law and medicine.
Author not specified in the imported source
Timbuktu, Mali · Africa
External reference (site language): Timbuktu ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The name was chosen in 1984, combining words from two local languages to replace the colonial name Upper Volta.
Author not specified in the imported source
Burkina Faso · Africa
External reference (site language): Burkina Faso ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Tenere desert has yielded some of Africa's richest dinosaur fossil beds, including giant sauropods.
Author not specified in the imported source
Tenere, Niger · Africa
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Lake Chad has lost most of its surface area since the 1960s due to drought and irrigation, affecting millions.
Author not specified in the imported source
Lake Chad · Africa
External reference (site language): Lake Chad ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Great Man-Made River pumps fossil groundwater from beneath the Sahara through thousands of kilometres of pipe.
Author not specified in the imported source
Libya · Africa
External reference (site language): Ancient Libya ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Underground Berber homes in Matmata were used as film locations and are still lived in and rented to travellers.
Author not specified in the imported source
Matmata, Tunisia · Africa
External reference (site language): Matmata, Tunisia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Carthage was one of the Mediterranean's great powers until Rome destroyed it in 146 BC, then rebuilt it as a Roman city.
Author not specified in the imported source
Carthage, Tunisia · Africa
External reference (site language): Roman Carthage ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Algeria covers 2.38 million square kilometres, most of it Sahara, and became the continent's biggest country after Sudan split.
Author not specified in the imported source
Algeria · Africa
External reference (site language): Algeria ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Rock paintings in Tassili show swimmers, cattle and hippos, proof the desert was green within the last 10,000 years.
Author not specified in the imported source
Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria · Africa
External reference (site language): Tassili n'Ajjer ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Chefchaouen's lanes are painted in dozens of blue shades, a tradition variously credited to Jewish refugees and to repelling insects.
Author not specified in the imported source
Chefchaouen, Morocco · Africa
External reference (site language): Chefchaouen ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Fes el Bali is one of the largest car-free urban areas in the world, where goods still move by donkey.
Author not specified in the imported source
Fes, Morocco · Africa
External reference (site language): Fes el Bali ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Noor complex uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight and can store heat in molten salt to generate power after sunset.
Author not specified in the imported source
Ouarzazate, Morocco · Africa
External reference (site language): Ouarzazate Solar Power Station ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
In southwest Morocco goats climb argan trees for the fruit, a sight that has become a roadside attraction.
Author not specified in the imported source
Souss, Morocco · Africa
External reference (site language): Souss-Massa ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
One of the longest trains in the world hauls iron ore over 700 kilometres across the Sahara, and travellers ride it free on the ore cars.
Author not specified in the imported source
Mauritania · Africa
External reference (site language): Transport in Mauritania ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
All ten Cape Verdean islands are volcanic, and Fogo's cone still has villages farming on its crater floor.
Author not specified in the imported source
Cape Verde · Africa
External reference (site language): Cape Verde ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Bijagos archipelago has around 88 islands, most uninhabited, and is a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
Author not specified in the imported source
Bijagos, Guinea-Bissau · Africa
External reference (site language): Guinea-Bissau ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Liberia was established in the 1820s as a settlement for freed African Americans and declared independence in 1847.
Author not specified in the imported source
Liberia · Africa
External reference (site language): History of Liberia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Portuguese sailors named the peninsula for mountains whose thunderstorms sounded like roaring lions.
Author not specified in the imported source
Sierra Leone · Africa
External reference (site language): Sierra Leone ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Togo is only about 110 kilometres wide but stretches 550 kilometres inland from the Gulf of Guinea.
Author not specified in the imported source
Togo · Africa
External reference (site language): Togo ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Around 20,000 people live in Ganvie entirely on stilts above Lake Nokoue, moving by pirogue.
Author not specified in the imported source
Ganvie, Benin · Africa
External reference (site language): Ganvie ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Kalandula Falls drop about 105 metres across a 400-metre curtain and see a fraction of Victoria Falls' visitors.
Author not specified in the imported source
Kalandula, Angola · Africa
External reference (site language): Kalandula Falls ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Namibia was the first African country to write environmental protection into its constitution, and its entire coastline is now protected.
Author not specified in the imported source
Skeleton Coast, Namibia · Africa
External reference (site language): History of Namibia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Dunes here reach over 300 metres, coloured deep red by iron oxide that has been oxidising for millions of years.
Author not specified in the imported source
Sossusvlei, Namibia · Africa
External reference (site language): Sossusvlei ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The camelthorn trees died around 900 years ago but the air is too dry for decomposition, so they still stand black against white clay.
Author not specified in the imported source
Deadvlei, Namibia · Africa
External reference (site language): Deadvlei ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The missed ferry. The stranger who handed over a key. The meal that ran until midnight. If something happened to you on the road and you still think about it, send it - a few sentences is plenty, and we do the tidying up.
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