Discover Central Plateau

Central Plateau brings together a variety of themes: the Tanlili botanical garden, the Mausolée de Naaba Oubri, open-air granite art and wildlife watching at Parc animalier de Ziniaré. When planning a trip, it is worth considering what makes each place distinctive—from plant species and tradition to history, sculpture and wildlife.

Plant diversity and tradition in Tanlili

The Tanlili botanical garden showcases plant species and helps protect biodiversity. It is also a place to appreciate endemic species and their uses in the Moagha tradition. In this way, the garden combines botanical diversity with cultural connections: plants here are not only part of the natural environment, but also associated with traditional uses. Visitors interested in the connection between species diversity and tradition will find a distinctive thematic focus of Central Plateau in Tanlili.

History at the Mausolée de Naaba Oubri

The Mausolée de Naaba Oubri was built over the tomb of Naaba Oubri and tells of his life and deeds. As a tourist attraction in the region, it brings together the history of a named figure and the place where he was buried. An older tourism website names Naabma, the Tengsoaba of the village of Oubriyaoghin, as a guide at the Mausolée Naaba Oubri and describes how he tells Naaba Oubri’s story there. This account connects the site with a specific person and a narrated historical perspective.

Granite art and wildlife watching

The granite art sculpture site in Laongo is also among Central Plateau’s tourist attractions. It is an open-air museum; one description mentions more than 200 works distributed across the Laongo and Tambi Yargo sites. The figure for the number of works is undated. The granite art gives the region’s cultural offering a distinct focus, different from Tanlili’s botanical perspective and the historical account associated with the mausoleum.

Parc animalier de Ziniaré is also among the region’s tourist attractions. A regional tourism article from 2017 described watching animals there in semi-freedom. This gives the park a different focus from the cultural and art sites: here, the emphasis is on wildlife watching. Tanlili draws attention to plants and their significance, the mausoleum to Naaba Oubri and his life, Laongo to granite art, and Ziniaré to animals. These themes can be explored according to personal interests without combining them into a single experience.

Burkina Faso in a broader context

In the wider travel destination of Burkina Faso, the Ancient Ferrous Metallurgy Sites of Burkina Faso form a distinct cultural heritage theme. At Tiwêga, Yamané, Kindibo and Békuy, notably well-preserved iron ore smelting furnaces can be found. These are among the very few sites in the country with standing furnaces. Their scale as large production sites illustrates, as a historical interpretation, the intensification of iron production in the second millennium AD.

Iron metallurgy in Yamané, Kindibo and Douroula is directly connected with living blacksmithing traditions. These include the symbolic values of ironworking in the communities of the descendants of blacksmiths and metallurgists. Blacksmiths preserve traditional rites and social practices there and play an important role in their communities. Also part of the broader context of Burkina Faso is the royal court of Tiébélé: this living earthen architecture complex is distinguished by its construction techniques, spatial, social and functional organization, the roles of men and women in building, and its architectural forms and decorative style. Its architecture combines earth, wood, cow dung and straw; the social and spatial organization within the court is determined by the status of its residents.

Discover more destinations: Oubritenga, Cascades, Centre-Ouest, Centre-Nord, Hauts-Bassins, Centre.

Go to the main travel overview: Burkina Faso.