It was great to note the addition in 2006 of the Sene-Gambian Stone circles as we had paid an interesting visit there back in 1984. Much of our travelling took place before UNESCO conceived of “WHS” (or at least before it “took off”) and it can be very annoying to discover that a “new addition” is only a few miles or even yards away from a place already visited (especially if we are unlikely ever to return!). Conversely there is a slightly smug pleasure in discovering that all the effort to visit some obscure site in days past has, in a sense, been additionally “rewarded” by the selection of that site as being of “universal value”!

We travelled up-country from Banjul for around 5 hours by “bush taxis” to reach Georgetown. (Now renamed Janjanbureh). This is situated on an island in the Gambia River and its crumbling reality significantly belied its rather grandiose name (In 1983 this overgrown village only had a population of around 7000). The Government Rest House provided clean and comfortable accommodation and the bureaucracy and social interaction with local officials whilst gaining permission to stay in it added to the experience. I understand that a hotel (“Bird Safari Camp” - complete with “the only swimming pool in the area”!!) has now been built just outside the town.

The nearest Stone circles are at Wassau on the north bank so another ferry journey was required. On the far side a motley collection of bush taxis waited to fill up but time was getting on (we visited on the same day as we travelled from Banjul and moved on to Senegal the next day) so we agreed to hire one of them for the entire journey – it was only about 25 kms. The site (photo) consists of a number of circles made up of 10-25 red/brown stones between 1 and 3 metres high. The circles are apparently not laid out randomly but form lines and other geometric relationships. They date to around 750 AD (+/- quite a bit!!). When we visited there was little sign of tourism – some wire around the site and an unoccupied entrance hut. We were joined by some bicycling locals but otherwise had the site to ourselves. I understand that a small Museum was built in May 2000 with assistance from UNESCO, probably as part of the plan to achieve WHS inscription (Apparently Gambia first tried to gain inscription in 1995 but failed due to lack of buffer zones, management plans etc etc!!). The other Gambian-inscribed Stone circle site is at Kerr Batch a bit further west from Wassau but we did not visit it.

Gambia seems to be developing the Circles as a means of persuading at least some tourists to visit beyond the Banjul area. If you are in Gambia I would suggest that it is well worth making the trip using the circles as a reason if not as the sole objective. This particular site by itself is no Stonehenge but is representative of an enormous area of such monuments comprising over 1000 circles and around 29000 monoliths! It is interesting to ruminate on the “convergent” aspect of human cultures vastly separated in terms of era, geography and technology (the Gambian stones were fashioned with Iron) which leads them to set up stones in circles.