Unguja lies just off of the Tanzanian mainland and to the south of its sister island, Pemba. The hilly island is 85 km (53 miles) long and 30 km (19 miles) wide, and is home to about 625,000 residents, most of whom live in the capital, also named Zanzibar.

The heart of Zanzibar City is Stone Town, a densely-packed maze of coral stone buildings and narrow alleyways mixing Arab, Persian, Indian, European, and African architecture. Rock fans may know Stone Town as the birthplace and childhood home of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Stone Town traces its beginnings to the 1830s when Zanzibar was ruled by the Sultanate of Oman, and flourished as one of the major spice trading ports of the entire world. During this time, Zanzibar was the largest global exporter of cloves (and, unfortunately, also a major exporter of slaves until 1876). The streets of Stone Town are too narrow for cars; the alleyways are instead packed with motorcycles and bicycles.

The most-well known landmark in Stone Town is the House of Wonders, the residence of the sultan between 1883 and 1963. Its name came from its status as the first building in the country to have electricity and the first building in all of East Africa to have a mechanical lift¹ inside. Adjacent to the House of Wonders is the Old Fort, built by the Omanis in the 16th century; it now houses a cultural centre, performing arena, and shops.

Beyond Stone Town lies the rest of Zanzibar City, known as Ng’ambo (literally “the other side” in Swahili). Here the housing is much more diverse. One unique feature of Ng’ambo are the massive apartment complexes called Plattenbauten that form a giant cross in the heart of the Michenzani neighbourhood. The long concrete buildings were built in the 1970s with aid from East Germany in an urban renewal scheme, but today are falling apart; most units no longer even have plumbing. Elsewhere in the city, we see densely packed houses of corrugated siding typical of urban sprawl in the area (zoom in and you can make out individual pots and pans!)²

Off the west coast of Unguja lies Changuu, or “Prison Island”, so nicknamed because it was originally meant to be a prison; the facilities are still visible today. Instead, it became a quarantine station for yellow fever patients. For the past century, it’s been used as a holiday destination for cottagers and tourists looking to get a peek at the island’s endangered giant tortoises.

Speaking of tourists, dozens of high-end luxury resorts rim the Unguja coast, such as the ornate complex below. The beaches here are long and wide, and diving and ATV rides are popular.

For most locals, however, income still comes from the land and sea, whether it’s growing fields of sugarcane inland or farming seaweed off the east coast. Few places on Earth have such a clash between east and west, rich and poor, as Zanzibar.

Locations: United Republic of Tanzania / Categories: Buildings, Islands, World Heritage Sites

View in Google Earth

Mount Kilimanjaro consists of 3 separate volcanoes, Kibo (the highest at 5,893 m), Mawenzi (5,149 m), and Shira(3,962 m).

Thousands of tourists hike Kilimanjaro every year, many doing it for charity. There are many tour companies that will cater for your every need whilst visiting the area.

After arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport, you will stay at a local hotel in Arusha or Moshi, until you are to commence your climb. There are many different trails to the summit, depending on your fitness and ability, the longer hikes giving you more time to acclimatise to the low oxygen levels. The starting points are Machame, Marangu, Umbwe, Rongai, and Lemosho; all hikes take 6 days, but some can be completed in 5 days. All routes converge at some point or other during the final day of ascent.

None of the starting gates are visible in high res, but the camps at Kibo, Horombo and Barafu are visible.

The final ascent begins around midnight on the 5th day from either Kibo or Barafu camps. A 6-7 hour hike will take you to the summit Uhuru peak. YouTube user GrundleflyDOTcom has a video of the final ascent.

The summit is also very famous for its glaciers which are under severe threat, with some estimates saying that the glaciers will disappear completely within 20 years. The Furtwängler glacier halved in size between 1976 and 2000, and the Northern Icefield and Credner glacier have been similarly affected.

Information about climbing Kilimanjaro tour groups can be found using these links or from WikiTravel.

Locations: United Republic of Tanzania / Categories: Natural Landmarks, Volcanoes, World Heritage Sites

View in Google Earth

Let’s start with the basics: many of the animals we can see in Africa are of course working animals, like this large flock of sheep, these forlorn looking donkeys, and an absolute plethora of cows, goats, camels, and people filling up at a well.

We can do much better than this though – out in the wild, things start to get a lot more exciting.

Firstly we can see a small group of Gazelles caught mid-leap in the desert of Chad, and there’s obviously been a few passing this way – look how many hoof-prints they’ve left in the sand! Also caught leaping (but through a river), are a large group of Red Lechewe in Zambia.

Again in Chad, but out on the savannah this time, we find this wonderful image of a small family of Elephants huddling together to protect their young. Presumably from the terrifying machine flying overhead…

Out on the plain in Mozambique we can see a portion of what must have been a fairly enormous herd of Buffalo, again presumably fleeing from the plane above them.

Thanks to the exceptional resolution of these images, the animals don’t have to be as big as the 1.7 metre high African Buffalo to be spotted. In a swamp in Mali, there’s a great image of a Giant Stork flapping lazily around. Just to the south there’s actually one perched in a mangrove, and lots of other birds have been caught on the wing elsewhere in Mali.

Not all the birds found are own their own though – on the coast of Mozambique there’s a stunning image of a huge flock of Pink Flamingos taking off (perhaps they were startled by this small boat to the north?).

To Zambia now, where we can see some lovely chubby little baby hippos and even better, in Tanzania we can see a pod of hundreds of hippos wallowing in the mud, which is a truly incredible sight.

Here’s another shot of the same hippos in the mud¹, but this time we can more clearly see that’s there’s actually a dead hippo lying on the bank, being feasted on by vultures.

Hippos tend to share their pools and rivers with other creatures – particularly crocodiles, and nearby to yet another pod of hippos we can see the unmistakable silhouette of a crocodile just under the water. Next to the first hippos we found, there’s another crocodile, just chilling out on the bank.

Finally, although not being the kind of animals you’d traditionally expect to see while on safari, these images of seals on the coast of Namibia are too good not to include!

And here ends the great Google Sightseeing Safari. Of course this is only the beginning as there are more than 500 Megaflyover images to explore in Google Earth! Reggie98 at the Keyhole foums has been categorizing all of the animals to be found in them.

To see all the Megaflyover images, open “Gallery” in the Layers sub-panel (bottom-left) and enable the National Geographic Layer. You’ll see little red aircraft symbols appearing all over Africa, and each of these will take you to a hi-res shot of the area. Also, here’s a link to download a kml file which details many of the hundreds of undocumented images that form part of this enormous and stunning collection.

Thanks to all of the people at the Keyhole forums who helped me find these fascinating images! For more background on the project, visit the official Megaflyover and National Geographic pages.

Locations: Africa, Chad, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia / Categories: Animals, Deserts

View in Google Earth