We visited the Ashanti Shrine at Besease in Nov 2010. Our research (the Nomination File, the Web and the Bradt Guide) indicated that it was the easiest and best of the 10 (or 13?) shrines to visit from Kumasi and I have no reason to doubt this judgement. We traveled by coach from Accra to Kumasi and, as we were very short of time, arranged to be dropped off at the village of Ejisu on the main road about 20kms short of Kumasi. The shrine is signed from the main road road and is set back around 200 yards to the left facing Kumasi.

The old man who is "guardian" (the same guy as in Els's review and photo) and can open up isn't there all the time and will probably have to be fetched from the village somewhere but locals in shops/stalls nearby the shrine seem to know where to get him. We were warned that he might be "some (African??) time" but in our case they found him in around 10 minutes. He expects a tip on top of the entrance of course so he has good reason to come!

An hour is enough to see the shrine and have the old man "doing" his grass skirt show (said skirt is hanging ready on one of the walls!). As Els says, the old guy doesn't speak English but a local school-boy teamed up with us to explain the libation ceremonies etc which were not really covered by the English wall signs. These take place in front of the sacred tree (photo). It might have been nice to have had a taxi for a day and to have visited a few more of the shrines there are others on the Ejisu side of Kumasi – but more to “experience” Ghana’s village life and interact with the locals than because Besease lacked anything which such shrines have to offer.

The shrine’s fabric looked in reasonable condition – the roof possibly needed rethatching but, no doubt, this is normal every few years for such structures. But as a “tourist attraction” it was very low key (not that this should necessarily be regarded as a negative!!). A couple of signs advertising its UNESCO status lay rusting on the ground alongside the building.

Kumasi is a large city (pop c 1.5 million) and its traffic is chaotic. Having reached the centre and your hotel you might be tempted to stay there for its sights (Market, palace and museum etc). The Besease shrine is pretty low key but having reached Kumasi it is worth going back out to take it in I feel.