Northern Africa Archives | World Heritage Sites

A narrow street, low white buildings on both sides and an archway across it.

Medina of Tunis

The ancient center of Tunis, with about 700 monuments dating to the 12th-16th century: mosques, gates, markets, palaces, noble houses, and more.

An arched gateway, with many white-painted houses arrayed up a hill behind it.

Medina of Tétouan

A well-preserved and lively historical quarter that shows the influences of both Arab and Andalusian culture on its art and architecture.

Looking up at a section of the exterior: 3 stories, each with arched windows with columns between them.

Amphitheatre of El Jem

A huge Roman-era arena built for entertainment in a colony of the Roman Empire.

Four huge sitting statues, with a doorway - about 3x higher than a person and reaching to knee height on the statues - in the center. At Ramses Temple, Nubian Monuments

Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae

Magnificent temples demonstrating the power of Ancient Egyptian civilization.

The wall of the Medina of Essaouira's fortification: an opening shows a cannon pointed outward, and a guard post rises next to it. In front of the wall on the water's edge are blue-painted fishing boats.

Medina of Essaouira (formerly Mogador)

An 18th-century fortified city incorporating both African and European architectural forms.

A cluster of red earth buildings with few windows, on the side of a hill. Decorative features carved around the tops of the buildings. Above them, on top of the hill, stone walls of a fortress.

Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou

A largely intact earthen fortified village that lends insight into traditional Moroccan life.

A white mosque with gray domes and very tall slender minarets. Beside it is a structure that looks like a castle's keep, round with crenellations around the top.

Historic Cairo

A collection of more than 800(!) structures – a fortress, religious sites, houses, cemeteries and many more – dating from about 100 AD until the 18th century.

A row of four enormous statues, seen from the side, guard the entranceways to the temple. Each has its arms crossed across its chest and each has a long straight beard.

Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis

Extensive temples and tombs that illuminate the history of ancient Egyptian civilization in architecture, art and text.

A row of columns, all broken at the top. The nearest is square while the ones beyond it are cylindrical.

Archaeological Site of Carthage

Ruins of the heart of a great trading empire and cultural hub.

A very narrow street, only wide enough for 2 people, with whitewashed houses on either side. The houses are painted blue up to about halfway up, and white above that.

Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage

A city that combines old and new: modern town planning that incorporates traditional cultural values.