Travel Guide Antongona

The site of Antongona, located in the valley of the village of Imerintsiatosika (5 kilometers to the north by a track practicable all the year), is charged with mystery. All along the route, one can discover superb landscapes of crests, valleys, and rice fields sculpted in terraces. From the top of Antongona, the panorama is magnificent. It is a grandiose decor, very Asian, which is not without evoking the film Kagemusha of the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.Antongona is a sacred hill. Here was built in the 17th century the fortified village of Amborano, of which we still discover today the moats, the walkways, the defiles of entrances in the course of the excursion. In the past, they were formidable bastions. Antongona generated a proverb which became famous: "Efa ho lava ny afon' Antongona" (which means word for word Frequent like the fires of Antongona), because the braziers illuminated the hills to call for help to the surrounding bastions in case of enemy attack.At the top of the Antongona hill stand two royal huts and a tomb, built on the same model as those of King Andrianampoinimerina at Ambohimanga.Finally, the small museum is open every day from 2pm to 4pm, except Tuesday which is a fady day. The climb to the top of Antongona takes about an hour and a half from the village of Imerintsiatosika. On public holidays, it is a place of pilgrimage which gathers, in an atmosphere of kermesse, thousands of peasants from the surrounding villages. We recommend it!