Harare in a day: from the Kopje to the markets

Green and orderly compared to many other regional capitals, Harare preserves tree-lined avenues and a panoramic hill right in the city's heart, heritage of urban planning designed on human scale.

A day is enough to move between contemporary art, markets and one of the finest views over the entire skyline.

The Kopje hill, just south of downtown, offers a view embracing the financial quarter's skyscrapers and the hills surrounding the city: a good way to start and understand how Harare is organized.

The National Gallery of Zimbabwe is the reference point for Shona stone sculpture, one of the country's most recognized art forms: the interior rooms and sculpture garden merit with calm a full hour.

The Mbare Market, the largest and oldest in the city, sells everything from textiles to fruit to secondhand objects: loud and dense, it's probably the most authentic place to observe the capital's daily life.

Those seeking a quieter moment can stop at the Harare Gardens, the public gardens in the city center, often animated by craft stalls on weekends.

From Kopje in late afternoon, raking light lengthens shadows across the financial district buildings, and for a few minutes the morning traffic seems a distant memory.

Few visitors climb up there before sunset: most have already left for airports or routes toward Victoria Falls.