The Sultan's palace

Today we went to see the sultan's palace - one of the few historical buildings that have been preserved in Zinder after the arrival of the colonials.

The sultan's palace, dating from the 15th century. The modern art depicted on its walls however is from the 21st century...

Hausa architecture at its peak... And what better fram than a bright blue Nigerien sky???

The sultan's courtyard, where the former prison cells open up to. Choose between the ant cell, the scorpion cell or the death sentence...

We didn't get to go upstairs this time (security reasons...) which was unfortunate, but we had a nice tour anyhow.

Our guide was a calm Nigerien who asked me more questions than he gave me information (as I had already been there twice before, I knew all the details, right?). I enjoyed his style though (calm and thorough) but unfortunately, we did not have all that much time.

Anette behind the camera (which Renate by her side)...

... and me and Sofia in FRONT of the camera! Anyone surprised...? Actually it was Sofia's mother who had asked for this picture: she wanted to see if we were still looked as much alike as we did on Smögen this summer... At least we did our best with matching outfits (as it turned out!), but apart from that, it is mostly 90% of Zinder that have a hard time keeping us apart. Especially when Sofia is out walking in our neighbourhood: the kids call her Ishtar and ask her questions she doesn't understand... It's tricky being in a country where you don't know the language, but when you have a lookalike (or when you are a lookalike!) you can just smile and say "oui, oui" and they'll be just as much your friends next time you meet.

Ishtar