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Antananarivo, known as Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar, spread over red hills 1,280 m up in the central highlands of the Analamanga region. It is famous for the Rova of Antananarivo, the hilltop Queen's Palace of the Merina kings, and for its steep stairways, churches and markets. About 1.3 million people live in the city, with close to three million in the wider region.
Founded around 1610 when King Andrianjaka seized the hill of Analamanga, the city grew into the capital of the Merina kingdom and later of the whole island. The Upper Town keeps that story in the Rova, the Andafiavaratra Palace and Andohalo Cathedral, while the lower town bustles around Analakely Market, Soarano Station and Lake Anosy with its Black Angel memorial.
Day trips reach the UNESCO-listed Royal Hill of Ambohimanga, the Rova of Ambohidratrimo and the free-roaming lemurs of Lemurs' Park, and Tsimbazaza Zoo shows Madagascar's wildlife in the city. Ivato International Airport lies northwest of the centre.
The Rova of Antananarivo, or Queen's Palace, crowns Analamanga, the highest hill in Madagascar's capital. Merina sovereigns ruled from this walled compound from the 1600s until 1896. A 1995 fire gutted it, and the chapel and tombs have since been restored. Come for the views.
Andafiavaratra Palace, just below the Rova in Antananarivo's Upper Town, was the home of Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony, who governed the kingdom in the late 19th century. It is now a museum holding about 1,466 royal objects rescued from the 1995 Rova fire. Pair it with the Rova on one walk.
The Royal Hill of Ambohimanga, about 24 km northeast of Antananarivo, is a walled royal village and UNESCO World Heritage Site, the best-preserved monument of the Merina kingdom. Fourteen gateways, defensive ditches, royal houses and tombs make it the spiritual heart of Imerina.
The Rova of Ambohidratrimo sits on one of the twelve sacred hills of Imerina, about 15 km from Antananarivo. The enclosure keeps royal tombs, stone offering altars to past kings, a ritual bath site and a rock of prediction where visitors toss pebbles. A local guide brings it alive.
Andohalo Cathedral, the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, rises over Andohalo square in Antananarivo's Upper Town. Begun in 1873 to plans by Jesuit Alphonse Taix and finished in 1890, its twin towers mark a site linked to early Christian martyrs. Sunday Mass has fine choirs.
Ambatonakanga Church is a Protestant FJKM church in central Antananarivo and one of the city's earliest stone churches, raised in the 1860s by London Missionary Society congregations on the site of an early mission chapel. A small cemetery of British missionaries lies beside it.
Analakely Market is the great market of Antananarivo, filling tiled pavilions and arcades at the end of Avenue de l'Independance with produce, dried fish, flowers, crafts and household goods. It succeeded the famous open-air Zoma, held until 1997. Go early and watch your bags.
Soarano Station, Antananarivo's colonial railway station, was built between 1908 and 1910 to designs by Georges Fouchard and closes the north end of Avenue de l'Independance. Restored in 2008, it holds a restaurant, shops and services, though regular passenger trains no longer run from it.
Lake Anosy is the heart-shaped artificial lake in southern Antananarivo, circling an islet with the Black Angel, a 1927 First World War memorial by Charles Barberis and Emile Perrin. Jacarandas around the shore bloom violet in October, and fireworks light the water on Independence Day.
Tsimbazaza Zoo, the Botanical and Zoological Garden of Antananarivo, was founded in 1925 and shows lemurs, tortoises, birds and native plants around a lake on a hillside. Its museum holds skeletons of extinct giants such as the elephant bird, and its herbarium is the largest in Madagascar.
Lemurs' Park lies about 22 km southwest of Antananarivo on the RN1, a 5-hectare reserve where nine lemur species, most of them rescued pets, roam freely among bamboo and pines by the Katsaoka River. Over 70 endemic plants and a vivarium of chameleons and tortoises add to guided walks.
Tsarasaotra Park surrounds Lake Alarobia in northern Antananarivo, a small private park and Ramsar-listed wetland where egrets and herons nest and whistling ducks gather within sight of busy streets. Bring binoculars and come in the breeding season, when the trees fill with birds.
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