Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites

A small island in the River Gambia carries an outsized weight of history. Fortified and fought over by European powers, Kunta Kinteh Island and its related sites trace the long, painful encounter of Africa and Europe along the river — a story of early trade, the rise and abolition of the slave trade, and the first European routes into the African interior. UNESCO inscribed the island and its related sites as a World Heritage Site in 2003.