Sunday 1 December 2019

Ruins of Loropéni

The quality of the images of this postcard is not the best, but I cannot complain, it's not everyday that I receive postcards from Burkina Faso!

Ruins of Loropéni
This postcard was sent by Mike

The dramatic and memorable Ruins of Loropéni consist of imposing, tall, laterite stone perimeter walls, up to six metres in height, surrounding a large abandoned settlement. As the best preserved of ten similar fortresses in the Lobi area, part of a larger group of around a hundred stone-built enclosures, they are part of a network of settlements that flourished at the same time as the trans-Saharan gold trade and appear to reflect the power and influence of that trade and its links with the Atlantic coast. Recent excavations have provided radio-carbon dates suggesting the walled enclosure at Loropéni dates back at least to the 11th century AD and flourished between the 14th and 17th centuries, thus establishing it as an important part of a network of settlements. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1225/


No comments:

Post a Comment