The 13 essential things to do in Dakar

Twenty minutes by ferry from Dakar port, Gorée has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978. From the 15th to the 19th century, the island was one of the slave-trading centres on the African coast, held in turn by the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French.

The House of Slaves, with its "door of no return" opening onto the ocean, is its most visited memorial. Car-free lanes lined with balconied houses and bougainvillea climb to the Castel, which looks back at Dakar.

Opened in April 2010, the monument stands on top of one of the two Mamelles hills, in Ouakam. About fifty metres tall, it depicts a man carrying a child and leading a woman, facing the ocean. It was designed from an idea by architect Pierre Goudiaby Atepa and built by the North Korean company Mansudae.

Its cost caused fierce controversy in Senegal. A lift takes you up to a viewing platform in the statue's head, overlooking the Cap-Vert peninsula.

Opened in December 2018, next to the Grand Théâtre national, the museum fulfils an idea put forward by Léopold Sédar Senghor at the 1966 World Festival of Black Arts. Its circular building is inspired by the impluvium huts of Casamance.

Its galleries cover the history of African peoples and their diasporas, from the first tools to contemporary creations, with masks, textiles, sculptures and works by living artists.

In the heart of the Plateau, Sandaga has been Dakar's great market for decades: fabrics, wax prints, clothing, electronics, spices. Its historic building, weakened by a fire in 2013, was demolished in 2021 to be rebuilt; trading carries on in the surrounding streets, notably Avenue Lamine-Guèye.

A few streets away, Kermel Market, under its restored hall, is calmer for fruit, flowers and crafts.

About 35 km north-east of Dakar, behind the coastal dunes, Lake Retba owes its pink hue to a micro-alga, Dunaliella salina, which thrives in its very salty water. Workers harvest the salt by hand from pirogues, then pile it into white mounds on the shore.

You float almost as in the Dead Sea; around it, the dunes are explored by 4x4, quad or camel down to the beach.

Set on the ocean's edge, on the western corniche in Ouakam, the mosque was built from 1992 to 1997 by Mohamed Gorgui Seyni Guèye and his community, without cranes or concrete mixers. According to its founder, its design came to him in a dream in 1973.

Its two white minarets and green domes stand out against the sea; it was inaugurated on 1 October 1997.

The Médina was born in 1914: during a plague epidemic, the colonial administration moved the Plateau's African residents to a "segregation village", first called Ponty-Ville. El Hadj Malick Sy renamed it Médina, after Islam's holy city.

Today it is one of Dakar's most crowded and lively districts: tailors' workshops, street trading, sports grounds and the Great Mosque on its edge. Youssou N'Dour grew up here.

Yoff, a former Lebu fishing village, has a long beach where painted pirogues are hauled ashore when the boats come back in the late afternoon. The district, north of the city near the old airport, still lives to the rhythm of the tides and the fish market.

The beach doubles as a football pitch and a training ground for wrestlers. Further south-west, Ngor and its island, reached by pirogue, are more geared to swimming and surfing.

Kermel market, on rue Parent in the Plateau, is a good starting point to see fish, fruit and spices before sitting down to eat.

Ceebu jën (thieboudienne), rice with fish and vegetables cooked in a tomato sauce, is the national dish; its culinary art has been on UNESCO's intangible heritage list since 2021. Yassa (chicken or fish with onions and lemon) and mafé (peanut-butter stew) complete the trio.

On the street: dibi (grilled mutton), accara (black-eyed pea fritters) and spiced Touba coffee. To drink, bissap (hibiscus) and bouye (baobab fruit); for dessert, thiakry, millet couscous with sweetened curdled milk.

Created in the early 20th century as a trial garden, Hann Park is one of Dakar's largest green spaces, between Hann Bay and the motorway. Its avenues shaded by tall trees hold a small zoo and a lake.

Dakar residents come to jog, picnic and stroll with their families, especially at weekends.

On the western corniche, facing Soumbédioune Bay, the craft village gathers workshops of woodcarvers, jewellers, leatherworkers and weavers, who work in front of visitors.

On the beach next door, fishing pirogues land their catch late in the day; grills cook it on the spot.

Dakar hosts the Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Dak'Art, held in even-numbered years: for several weeks, official and "off" exhibitions take over the city.

The rest of the year, the Plateau's galleries, including the Galerie nationale d'art, and cultural centres show Senegalese and African painters, photographers and visual artists.

Created in 1976, the park covers about 2,000 hectares some twenty kilometres south of Saint-Louis, on the sand spit between the Senegal River and the ocean. It protects a refuge for migratory birds: pelicans, cormorants, flamingos, terns.

About 260 km from Dakar, it pairs with Saint-Louis, former capital of French West Africa whose island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: allow two days at least.