Cirque Rouge

The Cirque Rouge is a natural amphitheatre where a stream has cut into soft sandstone and left walls banded in red, orange, ochre, violet and white, with fins and pinnacles standing out from the sides. It is small, perhaps a few hundred metres across, and a path leads down into the bowl and along the stream bed, so the whole visit takes an hour or two. The colours are strongest in the last hour of daylight, which is when most people come, and the site works as a sunset outing from Mahajanga combined with the beach at Amborovy. The formation is fragile, and the paths cut by visitors across the walls are visibly widening the erosion, so staying on the floor rather than scrambling the sides matters here more than at most sites.

What you actually see

• Banded walls - red, ochre, violet and white sandstone layers.
• The amphitheatre floor - a stream bed running through the bowl.
• Eroded fins - pinnacles standing out from the sides.
• Evening colour - the strong light that draws the crowd.

When to go

May to November for dry access. Late afternoon into sunset is the reason to come; midday flattens the colours completely. Rain both sculpts and closes the site.

Honest expectations

The site is small and takes an hour. It is close to the city and gets busy at sunset, with vendors. The sandstone is soft and climbing on it causes visible damage. There is no shade and no facilities beyond a ticket collector.

Nearby

Mahajanga is south; Anjohibe caves lie northeast.