King’s Palace
A reconstruction of the traditional royal residence, the King’s Palace is a beautifully-crafted thatched dwelling shaped like a beehive.
At the back live a few long-horned Inyambo cattle, descended from the king’s herd, whose keepers carefully tend and sing to them, keeping alive a unique tradition.
Rwanda Art Museum
Formerly the Presidential Palace Museum, this new museum displays contemporary artworks from Rwanda as well as abroad.
The museum seeks to provide insight into the originality of Rwandan creativity. Exploring the development of art from olden times to the modern day, it considers how traditional and modern imaginations can blend and fuse.
Ethnographic Museum
A gift from Belgium’s King Badouin in the late 1980s, the Ethnographic Museum now houses one of Africa’s finest ethnographic collections.
Seven galleries display historical, ethnographic, artistic, and archaeological artifacts accompanied by visual aides, giving visitors a rich insight into the Rwandan culture.
Kandt House Museum
Richard Kandt was the first colonial governor of Rwanda, on behalf of Germany, until the early 1900s. At present, the Kandt House Museum in Kigali comprises three main parts.
The first part presents Rwandan life in all its aspects – social, economic, and political – before the colonial period.
Museum of the Environment
Based near Lake Kivu in the Western Province, the Museum of the Environment covers two floors with a traditional herbal medicine garden on the rooftop.
The first of its kind on the continent, the museum looks at renewable and non-renewable sources of energy.
Kigali Genocide Memorial
Inaugurated on the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, the Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi is where 250,000 victims have been buried.
This memorial also serves to educate about how the Genocide against the Tutsi took shape and examines genocide in the 20th century.
The wall of names is dedicated to those who died and is a work still in progress. Many of the victims’ names have yet to be gathered and documented and many of the victims who rest in the graves are unknown.
