Africa is a fascinating destination for anyone with an interest in history and ancient civilizations.
- Africa is the birthplace of mankind and you can actually get tours of the caves at Sterkfontein (South Africa) where hominid fossils dating back 3.5 million years have been discovered.
- Traveling forward in time, Egypt is of course the primary destination for all those interested in ancient civilizations. The Pharaohs left behind the great Pyramids of Giza and they built magnificent temples and tombs in Luxor and Abu Simbel.
- Libya is home to some of the finest examples of ancient Greek and Roman ruins in the world. You can see the Roman ruins at Leptis Magna and Greek ruins at Cyrene along Libya's Mediterranean coast. They are both World Heritage Sites and there's very rarely a crowd, you may even get the whole site to yourself.
- If you would like to see Medieval Islamic architecture with Mosques adorned with splendid tiles, buzzing bazaars and warren-like streets then you will love Fes in Morocco.
- Further off the beaten track there's Timbuktu with its fantastic mosques built of mud, the mysterious thousand-year-old Great Zimbabwe Ruins and of course East Africa's slaving towns of Lamu (Kenya) and Zanzibar (Tanzania).
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Image of The Pyramids and Sphynx by David Hutchinson)
