The Roy­al Hill of Ambo­hi­man­ga con­sists of a roy­al city and bur­ial site, and an ensem­ble of sacred places. It is asso­ci­at­ed with strong feel­ings of nation­al iden­ti­ty, and has main­tained its spir­i­tu­al and sacred char­ac­ter both in rit­u­al prac­tice and the pop­u­lar imag­i­na­tion for the past 500 years. It remains a place of wor­ship to which pil­grims come from Mada­gas­car and else­where.