Ordered as the world is: continent, country, then stone.

Gando School

A school of local clay and a floating roof, because a village asked one of its sons to come home and build.

Bobo / Mossi — Balafon xylophone suite

Plate 002 · Africa

Lycée Schorge

2016

002 · Koudougou, Burkina Faso

sustainability

Lycée Schorge

A secondary school of laterite and eucalyptus, classrooms around a palaver tree.

Bobo / Mossi — Balafon xylophone suite

Plate 003 · Africa

Nubian Vault houses

ongoing

003 · Sahel region, Burkina Faso

sustainability

Nubian Vault houses

Vaults of unfired earth without timber, because the trees were already gone.

Bobo / Mossi — Balafon xylophone suite

Cameroon1

Plate 004 · Africa

Musgum Mud Huts

traditional

004 · Pouss, Cameroon

sustainability

Musgum Mud Huts

Shells of mud in catenary, a vernacular that engineers still admire.

Beti traditional — Bikutsi

Côte d'Ivoire1

Plate 005 · Africa

Basilica of Our Lady of Peace

1990

005 · Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire

Basilica of Our Lady of Peace

A basilica larger than St. Peter's, in a village that a president made a capital.

Guro — Zaouli, climate of

Egypt14

Plate 006 · Africa

Abu Simbel

c. 1264 BCE

006 · Abu Simbel, Egypt

Abu Simbel

Four seated colossi, cut from a mountain, then moved so a dam would not drown a king.

After Akhenaten — Hymn to the Aten

Plate 007 · Africa

Library of Alexandria

2002

007 · Alexandria, Egypt

Library of Alexandria

A disc of a library aimed at the sea, because a burned library is a wound a city can still try to close.

After Akhenaten — Hymn to the Aten

Plate 008 · Africa

Nubian Museum

1997

008 · Aswan, Egypt

Nubian Museum

A museum of a culture that a dam drowned, holding what could be moved.

Baligh Hamdi — Umm Kulthum, Alf Leila Wa Leila

Plate 009 · Africa

Philae Temple

c. 280 BCE – 300 CE

009 · Aswan, Egypt

Philae Temple

A temple moved block by block to an island that would not drown.

After Akhenaten — Hymn to the Aten

Plate 010 · Africa

Al-Azhar Mosque

972

010 · Cairo, Egypt

Al-Azhar Mosque

A mosque that became a university, still teaching after a thousand years.

Tatyos Efendi — Sama'i Bayati

Plate 011 · Africa

Citadel of Saladin

12th–19th c.

011 · Cairo, Egypt

Citadel of Saladin

A citadel over a city, with a mosque of alabaster that Muhammad Ali used as a signature.

Baligh Hamdi — Umm Kulthum, Alf Leila Wa Leila

Plate 012 · Africa

Mosque of Ibn Tulun

879

012 · Cairo, Egypt

Mosque of Ibn Tulun

A mosque of brick and a spiral minaret, the oldest in Cairo still in its original form.

After Akhenaten — Hymn to the Aten

Plate 013 · Africa

Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan

1359

013 · Cairo, Egypt

Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan

A madrasa of staggering scale, a sultan's bid to be remembered in stone.

Baligh Hamdi — Umm Kulthum, Alf Leila Wa Leila

Plate 014 · Africa

Hatshepsut's Temple

c. 1470 BCE

014 · Deir el-Bahari, Egypt

Hatshepsut's Temple

A woman-king's temple of terraces, later defaced, still the most elegant of the west bank.

After Akhenaten — Hymn to the Aten

015 · Giza, Egypt

Great Pyramid of Giza

You stacked a mountain so death would have to climb.

Unknown Hurrian scribe — Hurrian Hymn No. 6

Plate 016 · Africa

Great Sphinx of Giza

c. 2500 BCE

016 · Giza, Egypt

Great Sphinx of Giza

A lion with a king's face, buried and dug out, still older than our explanations.

Tatyos Efendi — Sama'i Bayati

Plate 017 · Africa

Karnak Temple

c. 2000–30 BCE

017 · Luxor, Egypt

Karnak Temple

The largest religious complex ever built, a forest of columns for a god of sun.

After Akhenaten, reconstructed — Hymn to the Aten

Plate 018 · Africa

Luxor Temple

c. 1400 BCE

018 · Luxor, Egypt

Luxor Temple

A temple in a living city, with a mosque on its court, because sacred space here never emptied.

After Akhenaten — Hymn to the Aten

Plate 019 · Africa

Valley of the Kings tombs

16th–11th c. BCE

019 · Luxor, Egypt

Valley of the Kings tombs

Tombs cut in a hidden valley, because pyramids had already taught thieves where to look.

After Akhenaten — Hymn to the Aten

Ethiopia3

Plate 020 · Africa

Axum Obelisks

4th c.

020 · Axum, Ethiopia

Axum Obelisks

Granite needles of a kingdom that minted coin and claimed the Ark.

Ethiopian secular mode — Tizita

Plate 021 · Africa

Fasil Ghebbi

17th c.

021 · Gondar, Ethiopia

Fasil Ghebbi

A royal enclosure of castles in the highlands, an African camelot of stone.

Ethiopian secular mode — Tizita

Plate 022 · Africa

Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela

12th–13th c.

022 · Lalibela, Ethiopia

Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela

Churches cut down from living rock, a New Jerusalem in the highlands.

Ethiopian Orthodox — Tewahedo chant

Ghana2

Plate 023 · Africa

Nkrumah Mausoleum

1992

023 · Accra, Ghana

Nkrumah Mausoleum

A marble tree-stump of a tomb for the man who said a new Africa would begin here.

Highlife traditional — Yaa Amponsah

Plate 024 · Africa

Cape Coast Castle

17th–19th c.

024 · Cape Coast, Ghana