South Sudan

On the floor of the Great Rift Valley, surrounded by wooded and bushy grassland, lies the beautiful Lake Nakuru National Park. Visitors can enjoy the wide ecological diversity and varied habitats that range from Lake Nakuru itself to the surrounding escarpment and picturesque ridges. Lake Nakuru National Park is ideal for bird watching, hiking, picnic and game drives. Flamingo (Greater and Lesser) and other water birds including a variety of terrestrial birds numbering about 450 species in total. Mammals: 56 different species including white rhinos,waterbuck etc. View-points: Lion hill, Baboon cliff and Out of Africa Hills: Enasoit, Honeymoon, Lion hill ridge etc Waterfalls: Makalia. Unique vegetation: About 550 different plant species including the unique and biggest euphorbia forest in Africa, Picturesque landscape and yellow acacia woodlands. http://www.kws.go.ke/lake-nakuru-national-park

Lamu Museums are located in the North Coast, a World Heritage Site and one of the most beautiful & serene locations on the African continent. Museum attractions include the Lamu Museum, Lamu Fort, German Post Office, Swahili House and the Takwa Ruins. http://www.magicalkenya.com/what-to-see/museums-and-monuments/lamu-museum/

The Museum aims to interpret Kenya’s rich heritage and offers a one stop for visitors to sample the country’s rich heritage both for education and leisure. In addition to the museum, visitors are treated to a variety of shopping and dining facilities, as well as botanical gardens that offer a serene environment. http://www.museums.or.ke/introduction/

Amusement park featuring a variety of rides & activities for families & children. https://nairobinvlunarpark.com/

Kenya Railway Museum (Nairobi Railway Museum) is located in an old railway building along Uhuru Highway. It provides answers to many unanswered questions concerning the early history of the rail and Kenya’s development. Nairobi Railway museum consists of the Main Gallery, the Resource Center, the auditorium and an outdoor collection of locomotives, wagons and coaches. https://www.nairobicity.com/entries/kenya-railway-museum

A short drive out of Nairobi’s central business district is the Nairobi National Park. Wide open grass plains and backdrop of the city scrapers, scattered acacia bush play host to a wide variety of wildlife including the endangered black rhino, lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, buffaloes, giraffes and diverse birdlife with over 400 species recorded. Visitors can enjoy the park’s picnic sites, three campsites and the walking trails for hikers.

This Sudan National park is found in Sudan (northern Sudan). it was gazetted as a protected area under Sudan National parks and reserves in 1935 on the banks of river Dinder after which it was named. other rivers cross in the park include Rahad river. The park covers an area of 7,1823sq km. It is also listed as UNESCO Biosphere reserves together with another Sudan National park. Dinder Sudan Park is known for its bird watching adventures and is an important Ramsar site in Sudan. The area of the reserve is along with a transitional eco-system of two exotic vegetation zones namely Ethiopian High plateau and the Sudanese arid Sahara. The types of vegetation in the park include meadows, riparian forests, acacia woodlands and open savannah grasslands. https://www.africatouroperators.org/sudan/dinder-national-park

Sudanese Museum is one of the main attractions of Sudan. The National Museum of Sudan is the largest museum in Sudan. Located on El Neel Avenue in Khartoum, the museum contains works from different epochs of Sudanese history. http://sudannationalmuseum.com/

The museum is located near The Mahdi’s tomb in Omdurman. The house was built for the successor of the Mahdi. The museum was established in 1928 and contains antiquities of the Mahdist period. https://afrotourism.com/attraction/khalifa-house-museum/

Two giant pairs of intersecting tusks located at the entrance of the city, along Moi Avenue forming dual archways over each side of the road. The tusks which form an interesting ‘M’ were made from aluminium in 1952 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s visit. http://afrotourism.com/attraction/mombasa-tusks/

Designed in the shape of a man and built in 1593 by the Portuguese, Fort Jesus is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the city’s top tourist attractions. http://afrotourism.com/attraction/fort-jesus/

Mamba Village is East Africa’s largest crocodile farm with over 10,000 crocodiles of varying age, size, and type including white crocodiles and newly-hatched baby crocs. The village also has a giraffe pen, an ostrich enclosure, a marine aquarium, and a botanical garden. http://afrotourism.com/attraction/mamba-village/

Although not an official tourist spot, the Tank Graveyard is a large patch of overgrown land just outside Asmara containing military tanks, armored vehicles and other metal tokens of war which were abandoned by the fleeing Ethiopian forces. http://afrotourism.com/attraction/tank-graveyard/

The cathedral of Asmara was build in 1922 in the Lombard-Roma- nesque style. Its tall Gothic bell tower is visible from everywhere in the city and is a useful landmark if you ever lose your sense of di- rection. The cathedral, as well as the primary school, the monaste- ry and the nunnery, are in the same compound and can be visited. http://www.asmera.nl/asmara-churches.htm

It may not have a particularly romantic name, but Stone Town is the old city and cultural heart of Zanzibar, little changed in the last 200 years. It is a place of winding alleys, bustling bazaars, mosques and grand Arab houses whose original owners vied with each other over the extravagance of their dwellings. Stone Town was recently and deservedly declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. http://zanzibar.net/stone-town/

Zanzibar’s brilliant white beaches lapped by the warm turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean provide the perfect place to relax, soak up the sun and take a break from some busy sightseeing. http://zanzibar.net/paradise-beaches/

Whilst most visitors to the Zanzibar archipelago visit Unguja, commonly known as Zanzibar Island, fewer take advantage of the fact that this is an archipelago, with several other islands and numerous islets. Only a few kilometres from Stone Town are several islets such as Chumbe and Chapwani, where good accommodation is available. Bawe and Prison Islands are good for daytrips with excellent snorkelling available. Tumbatu Island, off the north-west coast of Unguja is one of the largest off-shore islands but has no facilities for tourists. Mnemba Island is located near the north-east coast featuring luxury accommodation. Although Mnemba is a private island, it is surrounded by a rich coral reef, which is great for scuba diving and snorkelling and is visited by several watersports centres in the area. http://zanzibar.net/islands-in-the-sun/

Mbudya Island (simply Mbudya) is an uninhabited island in Tanzania, north of the Country’s capital city, Dar es Salaam and is one of the four island of the Dar es Salaam Marine Reserve (DMRS). http://tanzaniatourism.go.tz/en/destination/dar-es-salaam-marine-reserve

Bongoyo Island lies close to Msasani Peninsula in dare s Salaam city, about 30 minute by boat ride from the city mainland. http://tanzaniatourism.go.tz/en/destination/dar-es-salaam-marine-reserve

Kijiji cha Makumbusho - No one interested in the local culture should miss out on this museum. Open-air display of traditional habitats and crafts. The Village Museum was established in 1996. This museum was established for the purpose of demonstrating and preservation of traditional cultures of Tanzania. Visiting the village museum is like visiting the whole of Tanzania ethnic groups. The museum displays traditional huts of about 16 different Tanzanian ethnic groups. The idea of a ‘village museum’ seems a curious paradox ­is it a village, or is it a museum? Perhaps it is neither in the conventional sense. It is certainly not a living village, but rather a collection of authentically furnished homesteads representing some of Tanzania’s many different rural cultures. Nor is it a museum in the traditional sense (there is not a glass case to be seen). All 16 houses can be entered, and there are plenty of objects to see and handle. The Kiswahili word ‘makumbusho’, ‘reminders’, is more apt here than the English ‘museum, with its classical muse associations. Herein lies not only the unique charm of the place but also the real importance of the site. http://www.tanzanianow.com/the-village-museum-dar-es-salaam/

The Dar es Salaam National Museum is a site that showcases the history of Tanzania and is located at the centre of Dar es Salaam's CBD - Tanzania. It is the oldest in the country and has three large buildings. The museum was first established in 1934 by then governor of Tanganyika Harold MacMichael [1] but was not opened to the public until 1940. Since then two more buildings have been added, with the last one being the culture wing in 2011. Find out more about the history of Tanzania from as early as the 6th century or even earlier if you consider the displays about the origin of mankind; However, most of the actual information is on stories and not in the actual pictures. There are no video or audio explanations, thus a lot of reading is required to gain any information, unless of course if you got a guided tour. There also are two libraries near the entrance, one for children and one for adults. Each of these is equipped with tablets from which to browse the library's archives. https://africantourer.com/museum/dar-national

Dar Es Salaam Zoo is a zoological park in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The zoo is located in the Kigamboni-district in the eastern part of the city, 37 kilometers from Downtown Dar es Salaam. The Dar es Salaam Zoo is best known for having many animals endemic to Tanzania, including but not limited to giraffes, zebras, crocodiles, antelopes, tortoises, gazelles, monkeys, hyenas, lions, leopards, snakes, and several species of birds. There is also a kids’ zone with slides, swings and jungle-gyms. http://www.tanzanianow.com/dar-es-salaam-zoo/

Walk along an imposing stone causeway that leads from the banks of the lake to the first pylon of the temple, pass a colonnaded court and into the eight columned hypostyle hall. Note the hieroglyphs and the reliefs of Greek pharaohs paying homage to Ancient Egyptian deities. Look for Mandulis, the god clad in the vulture feathered cloak. Built during the late Ptolemaic period and completed during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, the Temple of Kalabsha was dedicated to the Nubian god called Mandulis. http://www.egypt.travel/en/attractions/temple-of-kalabsha

Philae is dedicated to Isis - the Goddess of motherhood, magic and fertility. As a symbolic mother of the king, she appears as a woman with a throne-shaped crown or sometimes depicted with the sign of motherhood and fertility: the two horns and the solar disc between them. Her cult spread over Europe since the Greco-Roman period. The cult of Isis at Philae goes back to the 7th century BC, but the earliest remains date from the 4th century BC. And Isis was being worshipped at Philae until the 6th century AD! By Roman times Isis had become the greatest of all the Egyptian gods, worshipped right across the Roman Empire even as far as Britain. http://www.aswan-individual.com/html/philae.html

"Is there no supermarket, you know, like a big mall?" a Japanese woman asked me - and indeed - there is none. Instead there is the suq, a big market about three kilometres long, where you can get everything, ripe and tasty fruits and vegetable, live poultry, meat cut with a sabre from the half of a cattle hanging between street and shop, at one stall fresh fish is brazed in tins for conservation, the soldering iron heated on coal. Soft foulards, clothes, tea, herbs and frankincense bis as cobbles are offered in the narrow alleys of the suq. Children ask to polish shoes to earn money for their families, Juiceshops provide refreshments. For example "Assir Assab", juice from sugarcane pressed out of rods, two meters long, made in front of your eyes, and which is as refreshing, that most people drink it without setting the glass down inbetween. http://www.aswan-individual.com/html/suq.html

There is a island in the city of asyut Banana Island, which is a nice place to relax. http://www.touregypt.net/asyut.htm

Luxor Temple is one of six ancient temples found in the vicinity of Luxor. It was built by Amenophis III for worshipping the gods Amun, Chons and Mut. The Temple of Luxor is placed firmly on the tourist trail in Egypt, attracting many thousands of visitors each year. It is one of six ancient temples in and around the city of Luxor in Upper Egypt, in the area that was once home to the ancient city of Thebes. The temple was initially built for religious rites to the gods Amun, Chons and Mut. One of the most awe-inspiring features at Luxor Temple is it imposing colonnade comprising a total of 14 columns that are topped with papyrus shaped capitals. Each column is roughly 23 meters high, with a circumference of around 10 meters. Both sides on the colonnade are enclosed with masonry walls that are covered with reliefs showing scenes relating to the festival of Opet. The colonnade, along with the decorated walls was completed during the reign of King Tutankhamun and King Horemheb. https://www.egypttoursplus.com/luxor-temple/

Luxor Museum of Mummification is without question a real Must-See Luxor attraction that essentially showcases the ancient and fascinating art of mummification. The Luxor Museum of mummification is exactly what it says it is: a museum that is dedicated to the subject of mummification. Visitors arriving in Luxor can find the museum facing the Nile River on Luxor West Bank, just a short distance north of the infamous Luxor Temple. Many visitors to the city would agree that you haven’t really experienced ancient Egypt if you haven’t visited the remarkable and incredibly interesting Luxor museum of mummification. The museum occupies what was previously a modern visitor centre, and many visitors are surprised when they discover just how big the museum actually is. As it stands today, it covers an area of just over 2,000 square meters, and within that area, visitors will find the main artefacts room; a lecture hall, a video room and a cafeteria. The Luxor Museum of mummification has done a spectacular job at showcasing the ancient art of Egyptian mummification, and today visitors can see a large collection of mummification related items on display, along with several mummified animals and even the mummy of Masaherta that is believed to be more than three thousand years old. https://www.egypttoursplus.com/luxor-museum-of-mummification/

The Luxor Museum is nowhere near as big as the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but it was never meant to be, choosing instead to display quality rather than quantity. The Museum of Luxor is located more or less right in the centre of Luxor, overlooking the Luxor west bank of the Nile River. Visitors who intend to visit the museum in shouldn’t expect to see anything along the lines of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo because the two places are quite literally worlds apart. While the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo is host to the world’s largest collection of Egyptian antiquities, Luxor Museum only has a relatively small collection, but it’s definitely worth visiting. When the museum was originally opened in 1975 there were no plans to house a massive collection of artefacts. Instead, the museum has a sort of “quality before quantity” policy. https://www.egypttoursplus.com/luxor-museum/

Karnak Temple is actually a vast temple city, with many of its structures dating back 4,000 years. It is today the largest remaining religious site of the ancient world, and it is visited by thousands of tourists every year. Because of its immense popularity, it is featured in many Egypt vacation packages, including many Nile cruise holidays. The temple complex is conveniently located near to the modern-day town of El-Karnak, just 2.5 km from Luxor. The site is massive, to the point where some people feel it’s necessary to spend at least one full day exploring the area. It’s also a good idea to have a guide with you when you visit. As with so many things at Karnak Temple complex, the hypostyle hall is massive, covering an area of 54,000 square feet, and home to no less than 134 huge columns measuring 23 meters in height. It is only when you actually stand inside the hall amongst its forest of columns that you truly get to appreciate just how wealth the New Kingdom had and to what extend Amun was revered. https://www.egypttoursplus.com/karnak-temple/

The Valley of the Queens, like the nearby Valley of Kings, is also an ancient royal necropolis where the wives of the great pharaohs were laid to rest from 1550 to 1070 BCE. During the time of the New Kingdom pharaohs, the area was called Ta-Set-Neferu which means “The Place of the Children of the Pharaoh”. Although the name Valley of the Queens tends to suggest that only queens were laid to rest here, the area was also used for the burials of princes; princesses and other family members of the nobility. The necropolis is located on the West Bank of the Nile, more or less directly opposite the ancient capital city of Thebes, which today is the modern city of Luxor. The Valley of the Queens is home to around 70 tombs, many of which are exquisitely decorated. A prime example would be the tomb of Queen Nefetari from the 19th dynasty. Her tomb is adorned with splendid polochrome reliefs which have remained intact through the ages and can still be appreciated to this day. Tourists that are intending visiting the site should keep in mind that only a limited number of tombs are open to visitors. The beautiful tomb of Queen Nefetari is not open, but special permission can be obtained from the Commercial and Event Office in Luxor for a fee. The tomb belonging to the wife of King Ramesses II is strictly off-limits altogether. This is considered to be the most beautiful tomb discovered, but because of its fragile condition, officials feel that heavy tourist traffic could cause irreparable damage. https://www.egypttoursplus.com/valley-of-the-queens/

Queen Hatshepsut Temple is a mortuary temple located near the Valley of the Kings, and it is today considered to be one of the great wonders of Ancient Egypt. Hatshepsut Temple is without question one of the most striking ancient attractions in all of Egypt. In fact, it is one of only a handful of Egyptian attractions that are considered to be “incomparable monuments of Egypt” and many historians also refer to it as being one of the Wonders of Ancient Egypt. Visitors to Luxor in upper Egypt will find this magnificent temple located below the rocky cliffs at Deir El Bahari, just a short distance away from the infamous Valley of the Kings, on the Luxor West Bank of the Nile River. From the moment the temple comes into view, it becomes very obvious that Queen Hatshepsut, an 18th dynasty pharaoh, wanted a temple that was well and truly fit for a queen. https://www.egypttoursplus.com/hatshepsut-temple/

Valley of the Kings is without question one of the most historically significant archaeological sites in the world. For roughly 200 years, archaeologists have been exploring the site, and during this time they have discovered 65 ancient tombs, with the latest discovery being made in 2008. The valley is essentially a royal necropolis that was used by the rulers of Egypt for a period of 500 years. Being a “royal necropolis” the area was reserved for the burial of Egypt’s New Kingdom pharaohs and a few lesser nobles. However, not all the tombs were actually used for burial purposes. Instead, several of them simply remained vacant. The Valley of the Kings is one of Egypt’s biggest tourist attractions, with an average of around 5,000 people visiting the site each day. On days when Nile River cruise ships dock in Luxor, the number of tourists can climb to as many as 9,000. It is without doubt one of the most fascinating places in all of Egypt. https://www.egypttoursplus.com/valley-of-the-kings/