Journal

Founded between 789 and 808 and inscribed in 1981, the Medina of Fez is a working city of some hundred thousand people, not an open air museum.

Founded in 1070 and inscribed in 1985, Marrakesh gave the country its name. Its medina covers 700 hectares and its square is inscribed in its own right.

A 42 hectare Roman town on the edge of the empire, inscribed in 1997, that was an Amazigh capital first and an Idrisid one last.

Madagascar was settled from Borneo and from East Africa, and Malagasy people were later enslaved and shipped across the same ocean. A double history.

Ancestors are present, fady are local and binding, and a good speech is an art form. How Malagasy society works, and how to be a guest in it.

Four traditions on the UNESCO lists, a music culture that fills the highlands and the southwest, and a calendar that mostly is not one.

Rice at every meal, an accompaniment beside it, and a chili paste on the side. What to eat in Madagascar and what the menu is telling you.

Cyclones from November to April, cool dry highlands from May to October, and an east coast that rains all year. Timing a trip to Madagascar.

The rainforest most visitors to Madagascar actually see, three hours from the capital, and not one of the six components of the Atsinanana inscription.

Limestone needles, canyons and dry forest across western Madagascar, in a serial property that was renamed and greatly extended after inscription.

The upper town of Antananarivo, its royal palace and its nineteenth century streets, on the Tentative List since 2016 and not inscribed.

Six rainforest parks along the eastern escarpment, inscribed in 2007, on the Danger List for fifteen years and removed from it in 2025.