Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

Cape to Cairo Red Line Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Bri ...

British colonies A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Council ...

Cape to Cairo Railway The Cape to Cairo Railway was an unfinished project to create a railway line crossing Africa from south to north. It would have been the largest and most important railway of that continent. It was planned as a link between Cape Town in Sout ...

African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies in ...

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

Trans-African Highway The Trans-African Highway network comprises transcontinental road projects in Africa being developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (ADB), and the African Union in conjunction with reg ...

Edwin Arnold Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 183224 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work ''The Light of Asia''.The Daily Telegraph'', which was joint sponsor of the expedition by H.M. Stanley to Africa to discover the course of the

Congo River The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

. The proposed route involved a mixture of railway and river transport between Elizabethville, now

Lubumbashi Lubumbashi (former names: ( French), (Dutch)) is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the country's southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia. The capital and principal city of the Haut-Katanga ...

in the Belgian Congo and

Sennar Sennar ( ar, سنار ') is a city on the Blue Nile in Sudan and possibly the capital of the state of Sennar. It remains publicly unclear whether Sennar or Singa is the capital of Sennar State. For several centuries it was the capital of the ...

in the Sudan rather than a completely rail one. 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

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Tra ...

,

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

and

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesi ...

and Nyasaland, Kenya, Sudan and Egypt. The road would create cohesion between the British

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

of Africa, it was thought, and give Britain the most important and dominant political and economic influence over the continent, securing its position as a global colonial power. The road would also link some of the most important cities on the continent, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria,

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

(then Salisbury),

Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was about 3.3 millio ...

(the main street through the centre of Lusaka was part of this route and is how it got its name,

Cairo Road Cairo Road is the main thoroughfare of Lusaka, Zambia and the principal business, retail and service centre of the city. It is a section of the T2 road and was so named because it is a link in Cecil Rhodes' then dream of a Cape to Cairo Road ...

), Nairobi, Khartoum and

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. One of the main proponents of the route was

Cecil John Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Bri ...

, though his preference was for a railway. German East Africa (

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

, now Tanzania) was a gap in the British territories, but Rhodes, in particular, felt that Germany ought to be a natural ally. Shortly before his death he had persuaded the German

Kaiser ''Kaiser'' is the German word for " emperor" (female Kaiserin). In general, the German title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (''König''). In English, the (untranslated) word ''Kaiser'' is mainly a ...

to allow access through his colony for the Cape to Cairo telegraph line (which was built as far north as

Ujiji Ujiji is a historic town located in Kigoma-Ujiji District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania. The town is the oldest in western Tanzania. In 1900, the population was estimated at 10,000 and in 1967 about 41,000. The site is a registered National His ...

but never completed). In 1918 Tanganyika became British and the gap in territories was filled. 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, and the idea of a road continued. After Egypt, Sudan was the next to become independent in 1956, 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 Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red S ...

. 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 The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ri ...

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 Court Treatt expedition of 1924 led by Major Chaplin Court Treatt and described by his wife Stella Court Treatt in ''Cape to Cairo'' (1927), which drove two

Crossley Crossley, based in Manchester, United Kingdom, was a pioneering company in the production of internal combustion engines. Since 1988 it has been part of the Rolls-Royce Power Engineering group. More than 100,000 Crossley oil and gas engines ...

light trucks leaving Cape Town on 23 September 1924 and arriving in Cairo on 24 January 1926.

The original route today

Starting from the south, the first section of the road that runs through South Africa is called the N1, linking Cape Town in the south with Beit Bridge on the

Limpopo River The Limpopo River rises in South Africa and flows generally eastward through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a group of Tsonga settlers led by Hosi Rivombo who settled in the mountaino ...

between South Africa and Zimbabwe. It passes through Johannesburg and Pretoria. There are numerous alternative routes in South Africa. In Zimbabwe, the road continues from Beit Bridge as the Chirundu-Beitbridge Regional Road Corridor, which consists of the

A4 road This is a list of roads designated A4. A4 is the name of several roads: * A004 road (Argentina), a road connecting Buenos Aires-La Plata highway with the Juan María Gutiérrez circle * A4 motorway (Austria), a road connecting Vienna and Nickels ...

(R1 road) to

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

and the

A1 road A list of roads designated A1, sorted by alphabetical order of country. * A01 highway (Afghanistan), a long ring road or beltway connecting Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar * A1 motorway (Albania), connecting Durrës and Kukës * A001 highw ...

(R3 road) to Chirundu Border Post on the Zambezi River thereafter, continuing as the T2 Road in Zambia to

Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was about 3.3 millio ...

. An alternative route is the A6 and A8 roads, which connect the South African Border with the Zambian Border at Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River via

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...

. The alternative route continues as the T1 Road in Zambia towards Lusaka. From Lusaka, Zambia's Great North Road continues the route to Tanzania as the T2 Road. (Also known as the

Tanzam Highway The Tanzam Highway leads from Lusaka in Zambia to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The highway was built from 1968 to 1973 in several stages and was intended to provide seaport access for Zambia and to expand the transport options for Zambia, Malawi ...

and consisting of a right turn at

Kapiri Mposhi Kapiri Mposhi is a Zambian town, seat of the Kapiri Mposhi District, Central Province. Located north of Lusaka, it stands on the Great North Road and is significant for the railway connection between Zambia Railways line from Kitwe to Lusaka a ...

towards Tanzania) 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 Tunduma is a town in Songwe Region, Tanzania, on the border between Tanzania and Zambia. It has border posts for both the Tanzam Highway and the TAZARA The Tazara Railway, also called the Uhuru Railway or the Tanzam Railway, is a railway in ...

on the Tanzania-Zambia border, through

Iringa Iringa is a city in Tanzania with a population of 151,345 (). It is situated at a latitude of 7.77°S and longitude of 35.69°E. The name is derived from the Hehe word ''lilinga'', meaning fort. Iringa is the administrative capital of Iringa Re ...

and

Morogoro Morogoro is a city in the eastern part of Tanzania west of Dar es Salaam. Morogoro is the capital of the Morogoro Region. It is also known informally as "Mji kasoro bahari" which translates to “city short of an ocean/port." The Belgian based ...

to the

Arusha Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census). Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern b ...

turnoff at Chalinze, and north to Arusha (although there is now a shorter route from Iringa to Arusha through

Dodoma Dodoma ( in Gogo), officially Dodoma City, is the national capital of Tanzania and the capital of the Dodoma Region, with a population of 410,956. In 1974, the Tanzanian government announced that the capital would be moved to Dodoma for social a ...

and

Babati Babati, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is a town in Babati Urban District of Manyara Region of Tanzania. It is the administrative capital of Babati Urban District and Babati Rural District and also the administrative ca ...

), 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. 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, expected to be reopened in 2022. The route from

Isiolo Isiolo is a town in Isiolo County, of which it is the capital. It is located in the upper eastern region of Kenya and geographically considered the centre of the country Kenya. It lies 285 kilometres north of the capital Nairobi. The town grew ar ...

in Kenya to

Moyale Moyale is a market town on the border between Ethiopia and Kenya, and is the administrative centre for two Ethiopian woredas, Moyale of Oromia Region and Moyale of Somali Region. Moyale is the main border post on the Nairobi-Addis Ababa road ...

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

Lake Tana Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wi ...

to

Gedaref El-Gadarif ( ar, القضارف '), also spelt ''Gedaref'' or ''Gedarif'', is the capital of the state of Al Qadarif in Sudan. It lies on the road that connects Khartoum with Gallabat on the Ethiopian border, about from the capital. Overview E ...

takes the route into Sudan. The most difficult section in the whole Cape to Cairo journey was across the

Nubian Desert The Nubian Desert ( ar, صحراء النوبة, ''Şaḩrā’ an Nūbyah'') is in the eastern region of the Sahara Desert, spanning approximately 400,000 km2 of northeastern Sudan and northern Eritrea, between the Nile and the Red Sea. Th ...

in northern Sudan between

Atbara Atbara (sometimes Atbarah) ( ar, عطبرة ʿAṭbarah) is a city located in River Nile State in northeastern Sudan. Because of its links to the railway industry, Atbara is also known as the "Railway City'. As of 2007, its population is 1 ...

and Wadi Halfa, but this has been bypassed by a paved road on the west side of the Nile, Dongola to

Abu Simbel Abu Simbel is a historic site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel ( ar, أبو سمبل), Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It is situated on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about ...

Junction to Aswan. Tarred highways continue the route to Cairo.

Cairo–Cape Town Highway

The Cairo–Cape Town Highway is

Trans-African Highway The Trans-African Highway network comprises transcontinental road projects in Africa being developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (ADB), and the African Union in conjunction with reg ...

4 in the transcontinental road network being developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the

African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies in ...

(AfDB), and the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

. The route has a length of and also links

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

in Egypt to Cape Town in South Africa.

Background

The Cairo–Cape Town Highway follows much of the Cape-to-Cairo Road's route but it has a few differences. Firstly, the Cairo–Cape Town Highway passes through

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

, Ethiopia while the original Cape-to-Cairo Road goes directly through South Sudan from Kenya. Secondly, the Cairo–Cape Town Highway in Southern Africa passes through Livingstone ( Victoria Falls),

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...

, Francistown and Gaborone and not through

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

, Pretoria and Johannesburg. Thirdly, the Cairo–Cape Town Highway in Tanzania passes as the shortcut through

Dodoma Dodoma ( in Gogo), officially Dodoma City, is the national capital of Tanzania and the capital of the Dodoma Region, with a population of 410,956. In 1974, the Tanzanian government announced that the capital would be moved to Dodoma for social a ...

and

Babati Babati, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is a town in Babati Urban District of Manyara Region of Tanzania. It is the administrative capital of Babati Urban District and Babati Rural District and also the administrative ca ...

when travelling from

Iringa Iringa is a city in Tanzania with a population of 151,345 (). It is situated at a latitude of 7.77°S and longitude of 35.69°E. The name is derived from the Hehe word ''lilinga'', meaning fort. Iringa is the administrative capital of Iringa Re ...

to

Arusha Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census). Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern b ...

and not as the longer route through Chalinze. This new route has a length of . 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 Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid wa ...

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 The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...

countries. The highway may be referred to in documents as the Cairo–Gaborone Highway or Cairo–Pretoria Highway.

Route

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 Wad Madani in Sudan and

Wereta Woreta (also transliterated as Wereta) is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, east of Lake Tana and south of Addis Zemen, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1828 meters ...

in Ethiopia, the route is shared with the Ndjamena-Djibouti Highway. The Ethiopian section is all tarmac road, although much of the Ethiopian section passes through mountainous terrain and parts of the road may be hazardous as a result. In northern Kenya the section has been hazardous due to the activities of armed bandits. The road has been dubbed "Hell's Road" by overland travellers, but it is completely paved. In Nairobi, the Cairo-Cape Town Highway intersects with the

Lagos–Mombasa Highway The Lagos–Mombasa Highway (also known as the ''Mombasa-Lagos Highway'') or TAH 8 is Trans-African Highway 8 and is the principal road route between West and East Africa. It has a length of and is contiguous with the Dakar-Lagos Highway with w ...

.

The road section through

Babati Babati, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is a town in Babati Urban District of Manyara Region of Tanzania. It is the administrative capital of Babati Urban District and Babati Rural District and also the administrative ca ...

and

Dodoma Dodoma ( in Gogo), officially Dodoma City, is the national capital of Tanzania and the capital of the Dodoma Region, with a population of 410,956. In 1974, the Tanzanian government announced that the capital would be moved to Dodoma for social a ...

to

Iringa Iringa is a city in Tanzania with a population of 151,345 (). It is situated at a latitude of 7.77°S and longitude of 35.69°E. The name is derived from the Hehe word ''lilinga'', meaning fort. Iringa is the administrative capital of Iringa Re ...

in central Tanzania (the T2 Road) has been completely paved, and passable throughout most of the year. Between

Iringa Iringa is a city in Tanzania with a population of 151,345 (). It is situated at a latitude of 7.77°S and longitude of 35.69°E. The name is derived from the Hehe word ''lilinga'', meaning fort. Iringa is the administrative capital of Iringa Re ...

in Tanzania and

Kapiri Mposhi Kapiri Mposhi is a Zambian town, seat of the Kapiri Mposhi District, Central Province. Located north of Lusaka, it stands on the Great North Road and is significant for the railway connection between Zambia Railways line from Kitwe to Lusaka a ...

in Zambia via

Tunduma Tunduma is a town in Songwe Region, Tanzania, on the border between Tanzania and Zambia. It has border posts for both the Tanzam Highway and the TAZARA The Tazara Railway, also called the Uhuru Railway or the Tanzam Railway, is a railway in ...

&

Mpika Mpika is a town in the Muchinga Province of Zambia, lying at the junction of the M1 Road to Kasama and Mbala and the Tanzam Highway ( Great North Road) to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in the north-east and Lusaka in the south-west. It also has a ...

, the highway uses an important regional route, the

Tanzam Highway The Tanzam Highway leads from Lusaka in Zambia to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The highway was built from 1968 to 1973 in several stages and was intended to provide seaport access for Zambia and to expand the transport options for Zambia, Malawi ...

. This highway used to have the distinction of being the only link between any of Africa's five major regions which is paved, linking East Africa to Southern Africa. It is the most used of any such inter-regional road on the continent. The Tanzanian section is designated as the T1 Road while the Zambian section is called the Great North Road ( T2 Road). From Kapiri Mposhi, the road is completely paved, mostly in good condition and continues southwards as the T2 Road (still called ''Great North Road''), through

Kabwe Kabwe is the capital of the Zambian Central Province and the Kabwe District, with a population estimated at 202,914 at the 2010 census. Named Broken Hill until 1966, it was founded when lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902. Kabwe also ...

and

Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was about 3.3 millio ...

to the

Kafue River The Kafue River is the longest river lying wholly within Zambia at about long. Its water is used for irrigation and for hydroelectric power. It is the largest tributary of the Zambezi, and of Zambia's principal rivers, it is the most central ...

Bridge, where it becomes the south-westerly

Lusaka–Livingstone Road The T1 or Lusaka–Livingstone Road is the main highway of the Southern Province of Zambia. It begins 55 kilometres south of the city of Lusaka (10 kilometres south of Kafue) and heads south-west to the principal tourist destination, Victoria F ...

, through

Mazabuka Mazabuka is a town in the Southern Province of Zambia. It is the capital of Mazabuka District, one of the thirteen administrative units in the Southern Province. The name Mazabuka originates from a Tonga local language word "kuzabuka" which m ...

and Choma to Livingstone and the Victoria Falls, where the road crosses the Zambezi River and enters Zimbabwe. The section from Kapiri Mposhi to the beginning of the Lusaka-Livingstone Road south of

Kafue Kafue is a town in the Lusaka Province of Zambia and it lies on the north bank of the Kafue River, after which it is named. It is the southern gateway to the central Zambian plateau on which Lusaka and the mining towns of Kabwe and the Copperb ...

is shared with the Beira-Lobito Highway. The road section through Zimbabwe is paved, firstly going south-east from Victoria Falls to

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...

as the

A8 Road A8, A08, A 8 or A-8 may refer to: Electronics * ARM Cortex-A8, a processor used in mobile devices * Apple A8, a 64-bit system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. *AMD A8, an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit * Samsung Galaxy A8, various smart ...

, then shifting south-west as the

A7 Road A7, A.7, A 7, A07 or A-7 may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * A7, the A dominant seventh chord used in many rock songs, see dominant seventh chord * A (musical note) * ''A7'' (mixtape), by SCH, 2015 * Avenged Sevenfold, a hard rock/meta ...

, crossing the border with Botswana after Plumtree (

Ramokgwebana River The Ramokgwebana River (or Ramoqueban) is a river that defines part of the boundary between Botswana and Zimbabwe before entering the Shashe River from the left. History The Tati District, a grant made to Captain Levert by the Matabele rulers, ...

), to the city of Francistown. The road section through Botswana is paved, going from the border with Zimbabwe as one road (the

A1 Road A list of roads designated A1, sorted by alphabetical order of country. * A01 highway (Afghanistan), a long ring road or beltway connecting Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar * A1 motorway (Albania), connecting Durrës and Kukës * A001 highw ...

) through Francistown,

Palapye Palapye is a growing town in Botswana, situated about halfway between Francistown and Gaborone ( from Francistown and from Gaborone). Over the years its position has made it a convenient stopover on one of Southern Africa's principal north–sout ...

, Gaborone and

Lobatse Lobatse is a town in south-eastern Botswana, 70 kilometres south of the capital Gaborone, situated in a valley running north towards Gaborone and close to the border with South Africa. Lobatse has a population of 29,772 as of 2022. The town is ...

to the

Ramatlabama Ramatlabama (or Ramatlhabama) is a village and railway station north of Mafikeng, in the North West province of South Africa. It is located on the border with Botswana, and serves as a border post for road and rail traffic. At the time of the 2 ...

border with South Africa. In South Africa, the road is completely paved, first going south from the Ramatlabama Border through Mahikeng to Warrenton as the N18 Route, then from Warrenton through Kimberley to

Beaufort West Beaufort West (Afrikaans: ''Beaufort-Wes''; Xhosa: ''eBhofolo'') is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and is known as the "Capital of the Karoo". It forms part of the Beau ...

as the N12 Route, then from Beaufort West to Cape Town as the N1 Route. At Cape Town, it meets the southern terminus of the

Tripoli–Cape Town Highway The Tripoli–Cape Town Highway or TAH 3 is Trans-African Highway 3 in the transcontinental road network being developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the African Union. The ...

, where it ends.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cape To Cairo Road British Empire Road transport in Africa 4

History

The original route today

Cairo–Cape Town Highway

Background

Route

See also

References

Bibliography