HARARE:

The capital city of Zimbabwe, Harare, is a beautiful, light-filled, open city; high on the country's central plateaux. The aging high-rises, eccentric traffic and jostling street markets of Zimbabwe’s capital is as ‘happening’ as it gets in these laid-back parts. However, there’s a lot to see. The premier showcase for Shona sculpture, Harare also has a vibrant African music scene, good shopping and other abundant urban diversions.

The city is set on a high-lying plateau, above the sweltering river lowlands of the Zambezi in the north and the Limpopo river in the south. The pleasant summers and balmy winters of the highveld ensure that golf and horse-racing are popular outdoor pursuits. Indeed, the climate is temperate enough to allow the planting of grapevines in the Marondera area, 60 km out of town. Surrounded by game parks, nature reserves and recreational lakes, Harare’s close environs provide ample alternatives to city-slicking -such as it is! Zimbabwe’s first city is rather like an old movie, filmed in sub-tropical technicolour but fraying at the edges, grainy with images of old cars.

It is a city of modern buildings, wide thoroughfares, numerous parks and gardens. A city whose streets are lined with flowering trees and a wonderful and invigorating climate.

There is a strong appreciation for the city's cultural and historical heritage and a number of the older buildings have been preserved. The Mining Pension Fund Building at Central Avenue and Second Street is one example and many more are to be found along Robert Mugabe Road between Second Street and Julius Nyerere Way.

The National Gallery houses not only a valuable and interesting national collection but also hosts travelling international exhibitions and has a permanent display of some outstanding Shona soft-stone carvings.

The priceless collection of Rhodesiana and Africana in the form of diaries, notebooks and reports of various origins, are housed in the National Archives. Some of the original works of some of the greatest names in African exploration and missionary can be viewed.

Other institutions which are well worth visiting include the Queen Victoria Museum and the Queen Victoria National Library, both at the Civic Centre; in Rotten Row.

The city was laid out with large open spaces like the 68ha National Botanic Garden with more than 900 species of wild trees and shrubs from all over the country. The Mukuvisi Woodlands
is 277 hectares of remarkably preserved natural woodland that stances astride the banks of the small Mukuvisi stream. A variety of bird and of wild animal species such as giraffe, zebra, impala, tsessche, wildebeest, bushbuck, steenbuck, reed buck and eland can be viewed.

If you want to experience shopping the way it is traditionally done in many African countries, you need to stroll around at the open flea-market at Mbare. Here tourists can feast their eyes on a colourful array of baskets, food, clothing and other items.

The Kopje, a granite hill rising above the south-west corner of central Harare, is a great place to go for views of the city.