Madagascar - The Upper Town of Antananarivo

Antananarivo was called Analamanga - the "blue forest" - until 1610, when the king Merina Andrianjaka built his palace on the highest hill in the city (at over 1,300 m altitude) and built everything there first Rova with Besakana Palace to post a garrison of 1,000 men. The old Analamanga then takes the name of Antananarivo: the "city of Thousand", actually a fortified village, protected by many circular ditches and access to which is through seven megalithic gates. It is from the location of the first Rova that the city develops gradually to extend over the whole hill (and become the current historical core). Its rise coincides with that of Imerina, territory of the Merina ethnic group, dominant on the High Plateaux and its status as capital was finally sealed in the late eighteenth century, when King Andrianampoinimerina manages to unify the peoples of the Highlands and definitely leaves Ambohimanga.