Stone Circles of Senegambia

Travel Blog  •  Ben Keene  •  07.28.06 | 7:16 PM ET

Coordinates: 13 41 N 15 31 W
Approximate area: 15,000 square miles (39,000 sq. km)
imageMention stone circles and most people probably think of the photogenic megaliths that beckon tourists to England’s Salisbury Plain. Farther to the south, however, along the River Gambia in West Africa, 93 stone circles in Senegal and Gambia represent a larger, more complex sacred landscape dwarfing Stonehenge. These massive seven-ton pillars were erected between the third century BC and the sixteenth century AD in a low-lying, sub-tropical region. On July 21, the World Heritage Committee added the Stone Circles of Senegambia along with 17 other sites to its list of 830 cultural and natural properties deemed most valuable to present and future generations.

—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Tags: Africa

Ben Keene has appeared on National Public Radio, Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio as well as other nationally syndicated programs to discuss geographic literacy and his work updating a bestselling world atlas. Formerly a touring musician, he has written for Transitions Abroad and inTravel.


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