Most guests touchdown in Uganda skip Kampala and head straight for the untamed upcountry for up-close encounters with elephants and mountain gorillas. Yet the capital metropolis’s dusty city sprawl—set amongst seven inexperienced hills dotted with terracotta purple roofs and conventional Ganda huts peeking out from tropical tangles of mango timber—is greater than worthy of exploration.
Once the center of the highly effective Buganda Kingdom, one in every of 5 that dominated over the nation till the tip of the nineteenth century, Kampala owes its identify to the herds of impala antelope that when freely roamed its forests. Over the years, town has witnessed the colonial ambitions of the British and endured the brutal rule of Idi Amin, finally rising resilient from the political upheaval that adopted in the Eighties.
Kampala has since blossomed into East Africa’s hub of commerce, tradition, and creativity—a colourful blur of “old meets new,” the place boda-boda motorbikes weave by means of throngs of road sellers hawking their wares and a energetic all-night scene pulses with vitality till the solar comes up.
Amid the chaos, Kampala nonetheless provides pockets of tranquillity that invite guests to pause and take all of it in, together with peaceable parks, tucked-away lakeside spots and historic websites just like the Kasubi Tombs—a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the burial floor of 4 Buganda kings. Here are picks of the very best issues to do in Kampala.
Explore the Uganda National Mosque
When Idi Amin was despatched into exile in 1979, his formidable challenge for a mosque in Old Kampala to serve town’s Muslim neighborhood floor to a halt. Decades later, in 2007, the constructing was lastly accomplished with the assist of then-Libyan chief Muammar Gaddafi. Today, tens of hundreds collect each Friday in its gorgeous, stained-glass-lit foremost corridor for prayers. Don’t miss the possibility to climb the minaret’s 272 steps—it’s a little bit of a exercise, however the panoramic views over town on the high are nicely well worth the hike. Guided one-on-one excursions, led by educated volunteers and priced at $10, discover the mosque’s wealthy historical past and spectacular structure, giving context to the societal significance of this landmark.