Ambohimanga is a hill and traditional fortified royal settlement (rova) in Madagascar, located approximately 24 kilometers (15 mi) northeast of the capital city of Antananarivo. It is situated in the commune of Ambohimanga Rova.

The hill and the rova that stands on top are considered the most significant symbol of the cultural identity of the Merina people and the most important and best-preserved monument of the precolonial Merina Kingdom. The walled historic village includes residences and burial sites of several key monarchs. The site, one of the twelve sacred hills of Imerina, 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 at least four hundred years. It remains a place of worship to which pilgrims come from Madagascar and elsewhere.

The site has been politically important since the early 18th century, when King Andriamasinavalona (1675–1710) divided the Kingdom of Imerina into four quadrants and assigned his son Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana to govern the northeastern quadrant, Avaradrano, from its newly designated capital at Ambohimanga. The division of Imerina led to 77 years of civil war, during which time the successive rulers of Avaradrano led military campaigns to expand their territory while undertaking modifications to the defenses at Ambohimanga to better protect it against attacks. The war was ended from Ambohimanga by King Andrianampoinimerina, who successfully undertook negotiations and military campaigns that reunited Imerina under his rule by 1793. Upon capturing the historic capital of Imerina at Antananarivo, Andrianampoinimerina shifted his royal court and all political functions back to its original locus at Antananarivo's royal compound and declared the two cities of equal importance, with Ambohimanga as the kingdom's spiritual capital. He and later rulers in his line continued to conduct royal rituals at the site and regularly inhabited and remodeled Ambohimanga until French colonization of the kingdom and the exile of the royal family in 1897. The significance of historical events here and the presence of royal tombs have given the hill a sacred character that is further enhanced at Ambohimanga by the burial sites of several Vazimba, the island's earliest inhabitants.

The royal compound on the hilltop is surrounded by a complex system of defensive ditches and stone walls and is accessed by 14 gateways, of which many were sealed by stone disc barriers. The gateways and construction of buildings within the compound are arranged according to two overlaid cosmological systems that value the four cardinal points radiating from a unifying center, and attach sacred importance to the northeastern direction. The complex inside the wall is subdivided into three smaller rova. Mahandrihono, the largest compound, was established between 1710 and 1730 by King Andriambelomasina; it remains largely intact and contains the royal tombs, house of King Andrianampoinimerina, summer palace of Queen Ranavalona II, and sites that figured in key royal rituals such as the sacrificial zebu pen, royal bath and main courtyard. Original buildings no longer remain in the compound of Bevato, established before 1710 by Andriamborona, and the Nanjakana compound, built for King Andrianjafy in the late 18th century. The hill and its royal fortified city were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2001 and represent Madagascar's only cultural site following the destruction by fire in 1995 of its historic sister city, the Rova of Antananarivo, shortly before the latter's intended inscription to the list. Numerous governmental and civil society organizations support the conservation of Ambohimanga by restoring damaged features and preventing further degradation.

The name Ambohimanga is a noun-adjective compound in the standard Malagasy language composed of two parts: ambohi, meaning "hill", and manga, which can mean "sacred", "blue", "beautiful" or "good". The earliest known name for the hill was Tsimadilo. It was renamed Ambohitrakanga ("hill of the guinea fowls") around 1700 by a dethroned prince named Andriamborona who, according to oral history, was the first to settle on the hilltop with his family. The hill received its current name from King Andriamasinavalona in the early 18th century.

Madagascar's central highlands, including the area around Ambohimanga, were first inhabited between 200 BCE–300 CE by the island's earliest settlers, the Vazimba, who appear to have arrived by pirogue from southeastern Borneo to establish simple villages in the island's dense forests. By the 15th century the Merina ethnic group from the southeastern coast had gradually migrated into the central highlands where they established hilltop villages interspersed among the existing Vazimba settlements, which were ruled by local kings. The tombs of at least four Vazimba are located on or around Ambohimanga hill and are sites of pilgrimage, including the tombs of Ingorikelisahiloza, Andriantsidonina, Ramomba and Kotosarotra. In the mid-16th century the disparate Merina principalities were united as the Kingdom of Imerina under the rule of King Andriamanelo (1540–1575), who initiated military campaigns to expel or assimilate the Vazimba population. Conflict with the Vazimba led Andriamanelo to fortify his hill town using earthen walls, stone gateways and deep defensive trenches. This fortified town model, called a rova, was propagated by the noble class throughout Imerina until French colonization of Madagascar in 1895.

The earliest settlement at the height of Ambohimanga was most likely established in the 15th century, coinciding with the arrival of the Merina in the highlands. Rice paddies took the place of the original valley forests by the 16th century, and the growing population near the valleys around Ambohimanga became known by the clan name Tantsaha ("people of the cultivated land"). According to oral history, however, the first to settle the site of the Ambohimanga rova was Andriamborona, the dethroned prince of the highland territory of Imamo, who relocated to the then-unpopulated hilltop in around 1700 accompanied by his nephew, his wife, and his mother, Ratompobe. Merina king Andriamasinavalona (1675–1710), who reigned over Imerina from his royal compound in Antananarivo, noticed a bonfire lit by the family on the southern face of the hill 24 kilometers away. The visibility of the site from his capital led Andriamasinavalona to desire Ambohimanga as a residence for his son, Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana. Andriamborona and his family agreed to shift three times to different parts of the hill, including the future site of the royal compound of Bevato, in response to consecutive requests from the king. For a short time he and the prince lived in neighboring houses at Bevato before Andriamborona and his family finally left the hill for the distant highland village of Ambatolampy, where he lived the rest of his life; the king retrieved their bodies for burial at Ambohimanga.

In 1710, Andriamasinavalona divided the Kingdom of Imerina into four quadrants, which were given to his four favorite sons to rule. Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana received the eastern quadrant, Avaradrano, and transformed his rova at Ambohimanga into its capital. As the first king of Avaradrano (1710–1730), Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana also built the site's defensive walls and its first set of seven gates. Rather than rule their respective territories peacefully as Andriamasinavalona had intended, his four sons began a series of wars to seize control of neighboring territory, causing famine and suffering among the peasant population of Imerina. Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana spent much of his reign strengthening the authority of his governance at Ambohimanga and attracting residents to settle in the surrounding villages while battling his brothers to increase the land under his control. He was succeeded by his adopted son, Andriambelomasina (1730–1770), who continued to rule Avaradrano from Ambohimanga in the Mahandrihono compound he built beside the original compound of Besakana. Andriambelomasina significantly expanded Ambohimanga and strengthened its defenses, enabling him to successfully repel an attack against the rova by a band of Sakalava warriors employed by his chief rival, the ruler of Antananarivo. He named as his successor his eldest son, Andrianjafy (1770–1787), and designated his grandson Andrianampoinimerina to follow Andrianjafy in the order of succession. Andrianjafy, a weak and unjust ruler, maintained his capital at Ambohimanga where he built a new private compound called Nanjakana, but often resided in the nearby village of Ilafy.