Murchison Falls National Park is the largest and oldest park in Uganda, gazetted in 1952. The park lies in the northern part of the country and covers over 3,840 square kilometers of land. It consists of two sections – the northern and southern, which are divided by the Victoria Nile whose banks are host to plenty of wildlife, such as crocodiles, elephants, hippos, and Shoebill.

The breathtaking Murchison Falls, which plunges 45m over rocky cliffs, and the famous big five – lions, elephants, leopards, hippos, and rhinos are the biggest draw to this park. Rhinos do not exist inside the park, but you can see them en route to it at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.

As the Almohad capital in the 12th century, Sevilla enjoyed great prosperity and ambitious building programs. But after the Muslim possession of Sevilla was ended in 1248 by Spanish Christians under Ferdinand III, the substantial Moorish and Jewish minorities were driven into exile, and the local economy temporarily fell into ruin.

The Spanish discovery of the Americas brought new prosperity to the city. Sevilla became the centre of the exploration and exploitation of America through the Casa de Contratación (“House of Trade”), which was established there in 1503 to regulate commerce between Spain and the New World. For two centuries Sevilla was to hold a dominant position in Spain’s New World commerce; it was the site of the chief mint for gold and silver from the Americas, and many Spanish emigrants to the New World sailed from its quays. Sevilla was in fact the richest and most populous city in Spain in the 16th century, with some 150,000 inhabitants in 1588.

This brilliance was fleeting, however, since Sevilla’s prosperity was based almost entirely on the exploitation of the colonies rather than on local industry and trade. As a result, Sevilla’s economy declined in the 17th century, though its cultural life underwent a great flowering at that time. The painters Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, the sculptor Juan Martínez Montañés, and the poet Fernando de Herrera are the glories of Sevilla and of Spain. Miguel de Cervantes conceived of his novel Don Quixote while he was confined in Sevilla’s jail.