The Gambia: Nature and a Storied History

Stone circles made of laterite pillars, birdwatching and a history reaching back to the trade routes along the Gambia River give The Gambia several very distinct facets. Nature, culture and history each offer their own focus for your trip.

Birdwatching in The Gambia’s protected areas

Birdwatching tours are offered daily in The Gambia. Important areas include Abuko Nature Reserve, Tanji and Kiang West. One estimate puts the number of bird species in the country’s protected areas at 560 in total. If birdwatching is to be a focus of your trip, check in advance which tours are currently available. These areas offer guidance for this part of the travel experience, without requiring you to limit your trip to just one type of excursion.

A museum in a historic building

The Gambia National Museum is located in Banjul in an old colonial building. It opened in 1985, 15 years after the founding of the Friends of the National Museum Association. The building’s former uses also span different periods of history: in the 1920s, it served as the Bathurst Club for European residents. It later housed the British Council and, in the 1960s, the Legislative Assembly; from 1970 to 1985, it was used as the Gambia National Library.

The museum’s remit includes collecting, preserving and presenting objects relating to the material culture of The Gambia. It also shares Gambian history and culture with visitors to the country and its residents. For those interested in culture, this offers two perspectives: the objects on display and the building’s own changing uses over time.

The Stone Circles of Senegambia

The Stone Circles of Senegambia comprise four groups: Sine Ngayène, Wanar, Wassu and Kerbatch. Wassu and Kerbatch are the Gambian sites included in the World Heritage listing, inscribed in 2006 under criteria I and iii. Together, the four groups comprise 93 stone circles as well as numerous tumuli and burial mounds. Finds from some of these burial mounds point to dates ranging from the 3rd century BC to the 16th century AD.

The stone circles are made of laterite pillars. Together with the associated burial mounds, they form a sacred landscape whose development spanned more than 1,500 years. The scale of the World Heritage site is also apparent in its wider context: more than 1,000 monuments are concentrated in a strip about 100 kilometres wide, extending along around 350 kilometres of the Gambia River. Individual monuments are thus part of a far-reaching cultural landscape.

River history and remembrance

Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites are located at the mouth of the Gambia River. They commemorate the important and painful era of the slave trade, its expansion and its end. Their location at the river mouth also points to the Gambia River’s former importance as a trading waterway between the interior, the coast and more distant regions.

The Six-Gun Battery and Fort Bullen are also part of this history. The Six-Gun Battery dates from 1816 and Fort Bullen from 1826; they stand on opposite sides of the river mouth. They were built later than Kunta Kinteh Island to suppress the slave trade, which had become illegal in the British Empire under the Abolition Act of 1807. These dates place the structures in the period after that law.

Crafts and the market experience

Craft markets outside the large hotels offer, among other things, carved masks, batik products, handwoven fabrics, leather goods and jewellery. Conversation and bargaining are part of the market experience. Markets thus complement the historic sites and nature experiences with another perspective on handcrafted goods and the interaction involved in shopping.

Discover more destinations: Banjul, Lower River, West Coast Region, North Bank Region, Kanifing Municipal Council, North Bank Division.

View the main travel overview: Africa.