Hilltop capital of the world's oldest island, where 90% of the wildlife exists nowhere else
Madagascar split from mainland Africa roughly 88 million years ago, long enough for evolution to take a completely different path — Antananarivo, the hilltop capital built around a royal palace, is the usual starting point for reaching lemurs, baobabs, and thousands of other species found nowhere else on the planet.
Founded around 1610 by King Andrianjaka on a defensible hilltop, Antananarivo (often shortened to "Tana") became the seat of the Kingdom of Madagascar and remained the island's political center through French colonization (1897–1960) and into independence. The Rova, the royal palace complex at the city's highest point, burned in a still-unexplained 1995 fire and has been under restoration for decades since.