Ambohimanga

The Royal Hill of Ambohimanga, meaning blue hill, is located about 24km northeast of Antananarivo. The location is where the line of kings and queens that once united Madagascar came from and where the subsequent royals spent much of their recreational time.

Ambohimanga is one of the twelve sacred hills of the Imerina and a place of worship by many Malagasy pilgrims today. A sacraficial stone in front of the rova is used during certain holidays to slaughter chicken. The walled historical village contains burial sites of members of former Royal Imerina families from 19th century.

The location was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 and includes seven gates, although some are mostly overgrown by bushes. The site is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9am until 11am and from 2pm until 5pm. Closed Mondays. Entrance is about 7,000 Ariary.

Ambohimanga is without doubt the most famous of all the hills. From there, towards the end of the 18th century, the King Andrianampoinimerina launched his conquest of all the other hills.

Loading map...

{"minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","type":"SATELLITE","types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"width":"auto","height":"400px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"https://www.madacamp.com/images/madagascar/Green_marker.png","visitedicon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"wmsoverlay":false,"copycoords":true,"static":false,"zoom":16,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"markercluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"tilt":0,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"fusiontables":[],"searchmarkers":"","enablefullscreen":false,"locations":[{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"floatleft\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/File:Ambohimanga_049.jpg\" class=\"image\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Ambohimanga 049.jpg\" src=\"/images/madagascar/thumb/Ambohimanga_049.jpg/150px-Ambohimanga_049.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"113\" /\u003E\u003C/a\u003E\u003C/div\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003E\u003Cb\u003ERoyal Hill of Ambohimanga\u003C/b\u003E\n","title":"Royal Hill of Ambohimanga\n","link":"","lat":-18.760433,"lon":47.562202,"icon":"https://www.madacamp.com/images/madagascar/Green_marker.png"}]}

An outdoors restaurant in a lush tropical garden offers a stunning view of Antananarivo in the distance. The restaurant is a bit hidden following a short trail from behind the souvenir shops near to the entrance to the rova. Live musical entertainement with traditional dancers entertains visitors.

A view of Antananarivo from the garden restaurant, next to the rova at the Royal Hill of Ambohimanga

Regular taxi-brousse's leave to Ambohimanga leave from Ambodivona Sabotsy.

Accommodation

• Chez Haga - a very nice guesthouse, restaurant and picnic area with a view of the hilltops, just next to Ambohimanga Rova. (closed since 2017)
• Banana Rova - an exclusive outdoors restaurant serving French/Malagasy cuisine, ½ km from Ambohimanga Rova.
• Resto Ravi - a small guesthouse and restaurant within short walking distance of Ambohimanga village.

Souvenirs

• Art Lala - offering Malagasy handicrafts

Ambohimanga to Ivato Internantional Airport trek

• 5-6 hours trek trough the countryside starting at Ambohimanga Rova to Ivato International Airport

Photos

View all Ambohimanga photos

Additional information

• Royal Hill of Ambohimanga on unesco.org
• Twelve sacred hills of Imerina on Wikipedia.org
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambohimanga
• ambohimanga-rova.com Local community website (French language)
• Restaurants in and around Ambohimanga