Antananarivo Travel Guide: An Overview

Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, locally known as Tana is very different from any other cities on the island. Antananarivo means the City of a Thousand Warriors and it literally teems with people and vehicles jostling, hooting and fighting their way through an unusual but completely chaotic city. Founded as a garrison for the troops of King Andrianampoinimerina, it soon transformed itself into a stronghold and centre for the majority Merina people, a powerful and dominant ethnic tribe on the island. During French colonial rule, Antananarivo evolved into the capital of Madagascar, which is why visitors see roads full of Renaults and signs posted in French showing the way to boulangeries and patisseries.
Antananarivo is located high up in the Hauts Plateaux near Madagascar's centre. It is wedged into a deep ravine formed by a Y-shaped granite mountain encircled by hills and gently rolling paddy fields. The Hauts Plateaux is the chain of rugged, ravine-ridden mountains that run from north to south down the centre of Madagascar. The city is built on three levels with the dominant structure being the Queen's Palace and the Royal Village or Rova. On the lowest level is the bustling market of Analakely. Built on steep hillsides, the cityscape is one of narrow cobbled streets, tunnels, hairpin bends, stairways running up and down to the different levels and tall houses built of red bricks with terracotta-tiled roofs looking down onto the densely packed alleys and lanes of the city.

The sheltered location of the city protects it from the worst of the monsoons from December to March, and particularly from the seasonal storms and cyclones. The actual rainy season stretches from November to March and the drier summer season is from April to October. Antananarivo has warm and thundery weather from November to April and dry, cool and windy the rest of the year.