Cairo–Cape Town Highway
Trans-African Highway 4 | ||
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Route information | ||
Major junctions | ||
North end | TAH 1 in Cairo, Egypt | |
TAH 6 in Sudan and Ethiopia TAH 8 in Nairobi, Kenya TAH 9 in Zambia | ||
South end | TAH 3 in Cape Town, South Africa | |
Location | ||
Highway system | ||
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The Cairo–Cape Town Highway is
The
In the 1980s, a modified version of the plan was revived as part of the Trans-African Highway, a transcontinental road network developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (ADB), and the African Union, named the Cairo-Cape Town Highway. While it uses most of the same roads as the original Cape to Cairo Road, it uses different routes in a few places.
History
The original proposal for a
In comparison, the Red Line road would stretch across the continent from south to north, running through the British colonies of the time, such as the
One of the biggest problems was the decline of the Empire and fragmentation of the British colonies. Even though Egypt became independent in 1922, British influence there was strong enough for Cairo to be viewed as part of the British sphere of interest,[citation needed] and the idea of a road continued. After Egypt, Sudan was the next to become independent in 1956,[citation needed] putting an end to the colonial motivation of the dream.
France had a rival strategy in the late 1890s to link its colonies from west to east across the continent, Senegal to Djibouti. Southern Sudan and Ethiopia were in the way, but France sent expeditions in 1897 to establish a protectorate in southern Sudan and to find a route across Ethiopia. The scheme foundered when a British flotilla on the Nile confronted the French expedition at the point of intersection between the French and British routes, leading to the Fashoda Incident and eventual diplomatic defeat for France.
The first known attempt to drive a vehicle from Cape Town to Cairo was by a Captain Kelsey in 1913-14 but this came to an untimely end when he was killed by a leopard in Rhodesia. The first successful journey was
The modern revival of the plan occurred in the 1980s. South Africa was not originally included in the route which was first planned in the Apartheid era, but it is now recognized that it would continue into that country. The consultants' report suggested Pretoria as end, which seems somewhat arbitrary and as a major port, Cape Town, is regarded as the southern end of regional highways in Southern African Development Community countries. The highway may be referred to in documents as the Cairo–Gaborone Highway or Cairo–Pretoria Highway.[citation needed]
Route
This section needs to be updated.(May 2016) |
The stretch of highway between Dongola and Wadi Halfa in Northern Sudan and the Egypt-Sudan border are now accessible by road through the Qastal-Ashkeet border post.
Between
In northern Kenya the section has been hazardous due to the activities of armed bandits.[8] The road has been dubbed "Hell's Road" by overland travellers,[8] but it is completely paved (contrary to the current pictorial indication). In Nairobi, the Cairo-Cape Town Highway intersects with the Lagos–Mombasa Highway.
The road section from Arusha through Babati and Dodoma to Iringa in central Tanzania (the T5 Road) has been completely paved, and passable throughout most of the year.
Between
From Kapiri Mposhi, the road is completely paved, mostly in good condition and continues southwards as the
The road section through Zimbabwe is paved, firstly going south-east from
In South Africa, the road is completely paved, first going south from the Ramatlabama Border through
Original route
The proposed route by the British Empire was known as the Cape to Cairo Road or the Pan-African Highway. In sub-Saharan Africa, it was also known as the Great North Road.
The Cairo–Cape Town Highway follows much of the route that makes up the proposed Cape to Cairo Road but it has a few differences. Firstly, the Cairo–Cape Town Highway passes through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia while the Cape-to-Cairo Road goes directly through South Sudan from Kenya. Secondly, in Tanzania, the Cairo–Cape Town Highway passes as the shortcut through Dodoma and Babati when travelling from Iringa to Arusha and not as the longer route through Chalinze. Thirdly, the Cairo–Cape Town Highway passes through Livingstone (Victoria Falls), Bulawayo, Francistown and Gaborone and not through Harare, Pretoria and Johannesburg.
Original route today
Starting from the south, the first section of the road that runs through South Africa is called the
In Zimbabwe, the road continues from Beit Bridge as the
From Lusaka, Zambia's
In Tanzania there are a number of roads could be deemed to be part of the route; the clear definitions and markings that are characteristic of the Pan-African Highway do not apply here. Most would consider it to be the road from Tunduma on the Tanzania-Zambia border, through Iringa and Morogoro to the Arusha turnoff at Chalinze, and north to Arusha (although there is now a shorter route from Iringa to Arusha through Dodoma and Babati), then to Nairobi in Kenya. This route is now all paved. There was a marker in the 1930s in Arusha, Tanzania, to indicate the midpoint of the road.[9]
Kenya has a tarred highway to its border with Sudan but the roads in southern Sudan are very poor and made frequently impassable, so that even without the conflicts that have afflicted Sudan, the route through Ethiopia is generally preferred by overland travellers. Also, the border between Sudan and South Sudan was closed in 2011, but was reopened in 2022.[10][11] The route from Isiolo in Kenya to Moyale on the Ethiopian border through the northern Kenyan desert has sometimes been dangerous due to bandits, but is now paved.
Through Ethiopia the route is tarred but some sections may have deteriorated severely. A paved road from
The most difficult section in the whole Cape to Cairo journey was across the
See also
- Trans-African Highway network
- Lagos-Mombasa Highway
References
- ^ "Cairo-Cape Town Highway: From Vision to Reality in 2015". Egyptian Streets. ES Media. 12 September 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-81087-801-3.
- ^ Weinthal, Leo (20 February 1923). "The story of the Cape to Cairo railway and river route from 1887 to 1922; the iron spine and ribs of Africa". London, Pioneer Pub. Co – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Cape to Cairo Railway".
- ^ Denny, S. R. (1962). "The Cape to Cairo Telegraph". The Northern Rhodesia Journal. 5 (1): 39–42. Retrieved 15 April 2007 – via NRZAM.
- ^ Court Treatt, Stella (1927). Cape to Cairo. London: Harrap.
- ^ "The Court Treatt Expedition". Retrieved 22 May 2009.
- ^ a b de Vos, Bas (20 May 2016). "Our ride to Kenya's Hell and back – for a cold beer". Business Day Live. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
- ^ Matson Photo Service (1936). "Tanganyika. Arusha. Half-way point from Cape to Cairo, 1936" (Photograph) – via Library of Congress.
- ^ Malak, Garang A. (22 August 2021). "South Sudan: Sudan, South Sudan to Reopen Borders After 11 Years". allAfrica.com. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
- ^ "Kiir lauds S.Sudan-Sudan border reopening". Sudan Tribune. 8 June 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
- ^ Michelin Maps. 745 Africa North East & Arabia (Map). 1:4,000,000.[full citation needed]
- ^ Michelin Maps. 746 Africa Central & South, Madagascar (Map). 1:4,000,000.[full citation needed]
- ^ "Sudan to Egypt via Argeen (west of Nile)". Horizons Unlimited. 23 May 2017.
- African Development Bank/United Nations Economic Commission For Africa: "Review of the Implementation Status of the Trans African Highways and the Missing Links: Volume 2: Description of Corridors". 14 August 2003. Retrieved 14 July 2007.
- Michelin Motoring and Tourist Map: "Africa North and West". Michelin Travel Publications, Paris, 2000.