Overview
Kampala is Uganda's capital and largest city, spread across a cluster of green hills near the shore of Lake Victoria — the historic seat of the Buganda kingdom and the country's cultural, commercial and political heart, and the lively starting point for most journeys into Uganda's wildlife.
Travel
Kampala is a warm, chaotic, endlessly energetic city that most visitors treat as a transit point but that rewards anyone who gives it a day or two. Built like Rome across a series of hills — originally seven — it wears its history on those heights: the Buganda kingdom's royal sites crown some, while great cathedrals and mosques command others, giving the skyline a distinctive, layered profile. The Kasubi Tombs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the burial ground of the Buganda kings, and the Lubiri palace anchor the city's identity as the seat of a monarchy that still functions today alongside the national government. Below the hills, Kampala is all motion: the vast Owino and Nakasero markets, the swarm of boda-boda motorbikes, and a nightlife and live-music scene among the liveliest in East Africa. The city has also become the home of Uganda's new specialty-coffee culture, a fitting turn for one of Africa's major coffee producers, with cafés clustered in the leafy neighbourhoods of Kololo and Bugolobi. For most travellers Kampala is also the practical hinge of a trip — an hour from Entebbe's airport and the road-head for every direction the country opens into. Give it time and its Buganda heritage, its hilltop churches and mosques, its markets and its music make it far more than a gateway.
Kampala is the capital of Buganda, the largest of Uganda's traditional kingdoms, and its royal sites are the city's cultural bedrock. The Kasubi Tombs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are the burial ground of the Buganda kabakas (kings) — a vast thatched palace of remarkable craftsmanship, sacred to the Baganda and rebuilt with care after a fire, visited respectfully with a guide. The Lubiri, the kabaka's walled palace compound at Mengo, and the Bulange, the kingdom's parliament building opposite it, are linked by a ceremonial road and speak to a monarchy that endures alongside the republic. Nearby, the Kabaka's Lake — reputedly the largest hand-dug lake in Africa — completes a half-day that roots a visit in the living history of the Baganda people.
Frequently asked questions
Diplomatic missions in Kampala
3 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.
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