Friday, February 10, 2017

Koutammakou - Togo

Getting a postcard from Africa is always good, receiving a postcard from an African UNESCO site is even better but getting a postcard from an African UNESCO site sent from there is a wonderful reason for jumping around the house, especially if that postcard has been sent on your birthday. This beautiful postcard from Togo was sent from there on 23 November last year. I've sent 3 postcards to Mikee so he could send me a postcard from Togo, I must say it was totally worth it.

Photo: F3.JR3. Amoah / E.R. ©
The Koutammakou landscape in north-eastern Togo, which extends into neighbouring Benin, is home to the Batammariba whose remarkable mud tower-houses (Takienta) have come to be seen as a symbol of Togo. In this landscape, nature is strongly associated with the rituals and beliefs of society. The 50,000-ha cultural landscape is remarkable due to the architecture of its tower-houses which are a reflection of social structure; its farmland and forest; and the associations between people and landscape. Many of the buildings are two storeys high and those with granaries feature an almost spherical form above a cylindrical base. Some of the buildings have flat roofs, others have conical thatched roofs. They are grouped in villages, which also include ceremonial spaces, springs, rocks and sites reserved for initiation ceremonies. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1140

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