12 days Private Tour Package in Senegal and the Gambia

ecture, its facade is of admirable beauty.  The Dakar station was built in 1885 and linked the city of Dakar to St Louis, also served Dakar-Niger, which made it possible to reach Bamako (Mali), in 36 hours twice a week. Tens of thousands of sharpshooters from Sudan, Dahomey or haute Volta (current Burkina Faso )passed through this station to be embarked on the European fronts.(the sharpshooters were a military troops main elements of the the black army belonging to the French colonial empire in 1857 and dissolved in the early 1960s ) the station quickly became the most important railway center in all of West Africa;  hub of city activity;  transit point for peanuts, arabic gum,coton, cola, postal mail and thousands of travelers. Located Place Dakar-Niger, renamed Place des Tirailleurs on August 23, 2004, it was rehabilitated by Eiffage Senegal.

itage site , very beautiful building from 1860 which was destroyed by fire in 1994, and rebuilt identically in 1997. The Kermel Market is still excellently preserved.  You can see lots of bright colors inside and outside the building.  The market provides beautiful fresh products, typical of Senegal.  Market gardeners, grocers, butchers and fishmongers are at the heart of the building, surrounded by decorations of vendors, artists and artisans.

ic colonial buildings including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which was the (court of French West Africa) the Governance (office of the French governor) and the Chambre de Commerce. The independance square is surrounding by travel agences ,banks,insurances ...

largest church in Dakar and the seat of the archbishops.  It is located on Boulevard de la République in the Dakar-Plateau district Built in the 1930s and consecrated in 1936, the Cathedral of Africain souvenir stands out in the landscape of Dakar with its impeccable  white color.  The materials chosen were imported from different countries (Sudan, Gabon, Tunisia, Benin, France) for a rather astonishing result with various influences.  Erected on a former lebou cimetry If you intend to enter, remember that it is forbidden to wear a hat, mini skirts or shorts.

After five years of work, this neoclassical building inspired by the Trocadero in Paris was inaugurated on June 28, 1907 as the Palace of the General Government. After having been the official residence of the Governor General of French West Africa , it is now that of the President of the Republic of Senegal.

rld Festival of Negro Arts to Dakar by Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal's first president, to create a museum that would represent the contemporary histories and cultures of the black world. The museum  consists of a round building inspired by the impluvium huts of Casamance has a total area of ​​15,000 m² on 4 levels, of which nearly 5,000 m² of exhibition space is devoted to African civilizations.  A place of civilizational meeting and dialogue between cultures. The Museum of Black Civilizations is an emblematic mark of civilization, identity and the promotion of African memory. The museum has requested the repatriation of African artworks, given that up to 95 percent of Africa's cultural heritage is held outside Africa by major museums.

copper statue accessible through a 198 steps stairway is the tallest statut in the world that one can climb inside. On the first floor, a slide show describing the history of the construction of the monument and a fresco retracing the history of Africa and its great figures.On the sencond floor, a small temporary exhibition room. On the third floor, the main lounge .On the 15th floor, you are in the head of the man and enjoy a breathtaking view of Dakar and the peninsula.

Built from May 1992 to October 1997 on the West Corniche of Dakar,  under the recommendation of Allah (swt) through Mohamed Seyni who received the descriptions. Everyone knows that for each guide, Allah (swt) has granted him a place of meditation where he can pray without clutter. That of Mohamed Seyni is this mosque called Masdjidou Rabaani (Mosque of the Divinity).  The divine injunction happened in  the night in a dream  when Mohamed Seyni saw the mosque in the sky.He was ordered to look at her and follow her to see where she was going to land.The mosque had appeared to him as a carpet.  When he had gone around, he saw written on the entrance the word Allahou Akbar (Allah is great) written in gold letters.

le to the artistic community by the State in 1998 It is placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Communication.  The Village des Arts is a space of four hectares, consisting of an exhibition gallery, a cafeteria, a bronze foundry, a multipurpose room, a library and a set of workshops.  for resident artists and visiting artists.  Its vocation is to be a space for creation, production, distribution, research, animation, promotion and exchange.  The originality of the place lies in the fact that it allows a stronger encounter with the works in a creative interaction with the artists.

trade, a visit to the island of Goree is essential, it is 20 minutes by boat from Dakar.  For 3 centuries, Africans were shipped from the island of Gorée to America.  The famous House of Slaves is one of the most visited museums in Senegal, housing all the harrowing reality of this aspect of world history.  Its picturesque architecture invites you to go back in time through the ocher plastered facades of the houses.  This island holds a special charm and an extraordinary fascination for visitors who feel a special emotion.  Lunch on the island near the ocean is possible.

Joal is the one located on the mainland, birthplace of the first president Léopold Senghor. Fadiouth is on a small island reached by a long wooden bridge entirely of shells: these shell middens are actually the remains of the molluscs eaten here by humans since ancient times and a quiet shell graveyard, which has been deposited over the centuries, hosting both Muslim and Christian tombs. It is possible to take the bridge but also to take a canoe to connect Joal to Fadiouth.

rt wakes up at a time when the canoes return from work, women, men and children water sometimes up to the waist go, at the  using baskets, basins, plastic buckets, fetch the fish to the pretty colorful canoes, receive the fish, sort them, empty them and lay them out on shelves or on the ground.  Some categories will go in the refrigerated trucks parked at the quay to be transported to the cities of Senegal and in the sub-region.  will be dried and then smoked for local consumption and that of neighboring countries.

It is the largest baobab in West Africa and measures more than 26m in circumference.  according to the curator, the baobab is 850 years old, a hole of a small width of barely 50 centimeters allows access to the interior.  If you have the courage, you can even go inside, but beware the opening is narrow.  This tree has a special history, Its interior cavity served as a cemetery for the griots of the locality.          When they died, they were mummified inside the baobab.  For these populations who were animists at the time, the griots did not practice agriculture and burying them underground would make the land infertile.  For several years, the griots had been hanging there.  It was finally in 1960, says curator Massamba Sall, that this practice was banned.  As the place is frequented by travelers, the baobab is surrounded by shops.

included in the UNESCO World Heritage List,where there are local architecture,an area located beatween land and water,savannah and mangrove, pristine landscapes,bolongs,the smiles and the richness of serere culture. In Mar Lodj, three different trees stand out from the ordinary. An imposing kapok tree, a palm tree and a caïlcedrat intertwine their trunks from a distant past. This seemingly natural phenomenon finds an explanation rooted in the tradition and beliefs of the Serer inhabitants of this city. It symbolizes the harmony between the three religions practiced on the island: Islam, Christianity and animism.

ied Man and Biosphere (MAB) by Unesco in 1981. Covering an area of ​​76,000 ha, including 59,000 ha of classified forests,  the main biotopes are mangrove and tanned mudflats, sandy coasts and islets, the marine environment and the Sudanian woodland savannah. Birds are abundant in this reserve, home to species like the lesser flamingo, goliath heron, pelican, l  dimorphic egret.... There are also some 36 species of mammals, including warthogs, spotted hyenas and red colobus monkeys. Exploring the Delta by canoe and possible to have lunch in the midst of the nature.

ambia) many stone circles can be found in places along the Gambia River. The stone circles in Senegambia lie in an area covering more than 30,000 square kilometres. The area is divided into two sections, the first in Wassu in Gambia and the second in the Sine-Saloum region of Senegal.The most important and largest concentration in the world site is in Wassu where there are 11 stone circles.The largest stone is 2.59 metres high,and since 2006 the area has been on the UNESCO World.

hat constitute of three Islands, 270 km inland of the river Gambia. From the boat visitors can closely observed the chimps (Chimps sighting not at all times guaranteed).There are possibilities to see hippos, crocodiles, green ververt, and western red colubus monkeys, hyenas and warthogs.

Its location in the middle of the river made it a strategic place to control the waterway. Visited by explorers and merchants in their search for a sea route to India it became one of the first cultural exchange zones between Africa and Europe. By 1456 the Island had been acquired by Portugal from local rulers and the construction of a fort began. The specific, important role of the site in the slave trade, both in its propagation and its conclusion, makes Kunta Kinteh Island and it Related Sites an outstanding memory of this important, although painful, period of human history.  This island is visited by painted local canoes.

The reserve is often known as the country's monkey park as it is home to a vast array of monkey species;very beautiful forest where you can see green vervet monkeys and red colobus monkeys Explore the 126 acres of protected land to see the monkeys swing from the trees in the canopy forest. Follow one of the several nature trails along the grassy footpaths through the lush nature to the golden sand dunes.Bijilo Forest is rich in birdlife and offers excellent opportunities for birdwatching over 133 bird species have been recorded here with various hornbills, pheasants, cuckoos, sunbirds, starlings, weavers, waxbills, eagles and hawks.    Bijilo Forest Park is a great day out that the whole family can enjoy.

n by local Gambians for its healing powers and as a place where people come to pray for blessings. It is sometimes seen as a place of last resort for infertile women who wish to conceive.Sacred rituals are still occasionally held here; often accompanied by dancing and drumming, most of the time, however, the only visitors are tourists.There are about 80 odd crocodiles in and around the pool  and you should be able to spot over a dozen dozing on the banks,the non-nesting crocs are known to be very docile and you will often see some visitors stroking or touching them. The complexe has a museum and has on display a collection of about 1,000 historic artifacts kept in four African round huts.

Banjul,it is home to historical documents and displays concerning the History of The Gambia.The museum houses three floors of exhibits. The ground floor displays the political and cultural history of the nation’s capital, Banjul.On the basement level, you can learn about the musical heritage of the Gambia and see what instruments are popular throughout the country and on the second floor, you can learn about the archaeological history of West Africa and the Gambia.The floor also details the nation’s colonial and post- Independence political and economic history. The museum has got a sound educational value,gambian School children form the largest group of visitors, and the museum education programme of art classes, quiz, history video shows etc and have become supplementary to civics and social studies classes. Of course, the museum embodies the countries cultural and historical identity.

More than 600 inhabitants live on this small piece of island. They arrived there in the late 1800s, following a tribal war that prompted them to flee their land to settle on the island of Eloubaline. This exodus finally turned into a real opportunity since they discovered that the land there was very fertile. It is also the village where there would be the most impluvium huts. In one of them, live 7 families, more than 60 people. Note that polygamy is very common in the Diola culture, and that in these 7 families, two husbands have 7 wives. In the heart of the village, you can discover the different traditions, the different ways of weaving, pounding rice, learning more about the education and functioning of the village, local fishing, oyster harvesting, rice fields .

This village of basse Casamance, is famous for its pottery, in each house of the village, you will find a potter and a small workshop area in the courtyard.  This tradition, which is passed down from mother to daughter, still has a bright future ahead of it, using local materials, daily utensils, here everything is done in the traditional way.

radle of culture in basse Casamance, and its traditional ceremonies. Built in the heart of the densest forest in Senegal, Oussouye is mysterious, surrounded by animist "sacred woods", heir to a rich history closely linked to that of the Diola kingdom. Because Oussouye is the capital of Kassa, led by the king of the Floups, Sibiloumbaye Diédhiou who has a great influence on seventeen villages in the region. The initiation ceremonies are particularly famous there.It is possible to request an audience with the king, if you wish to speak to him about a subject  which concerns to him or the village, near by the royal house the king will meet you in front of the sacred wood depending on its availability. Visit the local fruit processing workshop in Oussouye then continue to the traditional village of Mlomp.

tectural nugget, with its Casamance "doorsteps" with earth colonnades and ocher walls.    Place de Mlomp is majestic, with its two-storey huts and its huge kapok tree with their roots spreading like tentacles around them. Located in the middle of imposing kapok tree on the main road between Elinkine and Oussouye, a remarkable impluvium hut shelter an exhibition dedicated to the Diola culture, then head towards Pointe St Georges.

huge century-old kapok tree of 35 meters high offers a magnificent view of all the surroundings. Observation of manatees when they come to drink on the shore at low tide and the regular passage  dolphins not far from the terrace of the "Lamantin camp".

k trees  designed and produced by the youth of Boucotte Diola, this place in the heart of nature tells the story of the traditions of the Diola people. The guided and humorous visit allows you to  discover, at the foot of each tree, all the traditional objects of the Diola culture: musical instruments, kitchen utensils, fishing tools, African fetishes, outfits of the wrestlers with the different colored loincloths according to the age group, equipment used  to collect palm wine, fetishes and many other things that perpetuate ancestral traditions. After the visit departure to the airport DSS by plane

fe close up in an friendly environmentally  nature. Up on arrived we will take a 4×4 WD used specialy for safari, this park of 3,500 ha is home to many animals, some of which were reintroduced to Senegal after having disappeared there for a long time, such as: rhinoceros, giraffes, large antelopes, dama gazelles, Derby elks, buffalos, patas monkeys, vervets, warthogs, hippotragues, jackals.... Back to Saly ,the afternoon, free to take advantage of the beach or shopping .