ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR
Antananarivo (Tananarive) is the capital of Madagascar and an administrative centre of a province of Antananarivo, is located in the central part of island Madagascar on downslopes of a mountain ridge. The city is at average height of 1248 meters above the sea level. The population is about 802000 inhabitants. Antananarivo has grown at the place of a strong fortress constructed by governors of the Gelding in first half of the XVIIth centuries. The palace was saved until the present day and occupies the highest point of the city. Up to the end of the XIXth century it remained a residence of kings of Madagascar. After 1980 when the city was seized by the Frenchmen, Antananarivo has become an administrative centre of the French possession of Madagascar. In June of 1960 year it has become a capital of independent Malagasy Republic, and since December, 1975 – the Democratic Republic of Madagascar. Till 1977 the city was called as Tananarive.
Antananarivo serves as the main cultural, economic and an administrative centre of Madagascar. Here there are food, leather-shoe, chemical, wood-manufacturing, textile and other enterprises. Besides the city is a shopping center of the region specialized in cultivation of rice. In capital there is an international airport, and the railway binds the city to Tamatave – a seaport in the Indian Ocean.
In Antananarivo there are Madagascar University, a museum of arts and archeology, and also a space observatory. Among old buildings there are known former royal palace and flock of buildings of complex architecture.
