Arusha Clocktower

A railway stretching north to south across the African continent, from the ancient entrepôt of Cairo all the way to Cape Town in South Africa, was the dream of the inveterate British colonialist Cecil Rhodes. The desire to establish the unbroken line of possessions that would allow the construction of the railway drove British colonial policy for years. In the end, however, the railway was never completed, and the British empire gave way to independence. 

Still, the spirit of “Cape to Cairo” lives on. Adventurous globetrotters still make the trek overland, traversing mountain, veldt, and valley by car, bike, or motorcycle. A welcome milestone comes in the city of Arusha in Tanzania. The city has long been marked as the midpoint of the approximately 10,000-kilometer journey, specifically at its central clocktower.

Although Arusha was considered the midpoint before the construction of the clocktower, the honor of marking the exact spot fell to the clocktower after it was built in the years following World War II. The money for the clocktower was donated by Christos Galanos, a Greek man who came to east Africa to seek his fortune. After giving back to the community in the shape of the clocktower, it has marked the center of town and the center of Africa for the most adventurous of travelers.