Ruins of Loropéni

The tall stone walls of Loropéni have stood for at least a thousand years, enclosing 11,130 square metres of a settlement tied to the trans-Saharan gold trade. Best preserved of ten fortress ruins in the Lobi country, near where Burkina Faso meets Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo, the site flourished under the Lohron and Koulango peoples from the 14th to the 17th century, and much of it still awaits excavation. In 2009 it became Burkina Faso's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.