🇺🇬 Uganda
Kampala
Kampala is the capital of Uganda — a city of 3.7 million people spread across seven hills above the northern shore of Lake Victoria (the largest lake in Africa by surface area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the primary source of the River Nile). Kampala was founded in 1890 on Mengo Hill (the hill of the Kabaka (King) of Buganda, the most powerful kingdom in the Great Lakes region) as a British colonial garrison and administrative post, taking its name from the impala antelope that grazed on the hills before colonisation. The Buganda Kingdom (founded approximately 1300 CE, the most sophisticated pre-colonial state in East Africa) had its royal court (the Kabaka's Palace) on Mengo Hill — the same site where the colonial fort was built. The city's defining cultural landmark is the Kasubi Tombs (Tombs of the Buganda Kings — UNESCO World Heritage Site 2001; the royal burial ground on Kasubi Hill, where four Kabakas are buried in a monumental thatched structure (a Buganda architectural tradition using elephant grass, bark cloth, and woven reed)); the Tombs were partially destroyed by fire in 2010 and are being reconstructed. The Namugongo Martyrs Shrine (the site where 45 Christians (22 Catholic, 23 Anglican) were burned alive in 1886 on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II; visited annually by 2 million+ pilgrims on June 3) is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in Africa south of the Sahara. Best months: June–August and December–February (the dry seasons).