Wassu stone circles Gambia consists of four large groups of stone circles that represent an extraordinary concentration of over 1,000 monuments in a band 100 km wide along some 350 km of the River Gambia. The four groups, Sine Ngayène, Wanar, Wassu and Kerbatch, cover 93 stone circles and numerous tumuli, burial mounds, some of which have been excavated to reveal material that suggest dates between 3rd century BC and 16th century AD. Together the stone circles of laterite pillars and their associated burial mounds present a vast sacred landscape created over more than 1,500 years. Stone circles of Senegambia reflect a prosperous highly organized and lasting society.
Continent: Africa
Country: Gambia, Senegal
Category: Cultural
Criterion: (I)(III)
Date of Inscription: 2003
Individual stones
The finely worked individual stones display precise and skilful stone working practices and contribute to the imposing order and grandeur of the overall stone circle complexes. The nominated stone circles, represent the wider megalithic zone, in which the survival of so many circles is a unique manifestation of construction and funerary practices which persisted for over a millennia and a half across a large sweep of landscape, and reflects a sophisticated and productive society. Although the stone circles have been the subject of research over the past 100 years, and several parts of the nominated site have been excavated, more could be elucidated about the megalithic zone as a whole.
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| Stone circles of Senegambia |
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