Koutammakou

Koutammakou is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Togo.

Understand

A mud house and granaries

The area is home to the Batammariba people and features traditional mud tower-houses. Built to fend off slave traders, the houses now serve as home to farm animals and various materials. Villagers still kill chickens on sacrificial altars outside of the houses and fill the first room of the huts with a range of fetishes.

Get in

Tours and guides can be arranged from Kara, or you can take a taxi to the village of Nadoba for about CFA 20,000–30,000 and arrange a guide there. You may have trouble finding a guide that speaks English, but there are a few around and if you're lucky you might catch one. Village entrance costs CFA 1,500 per person, while a guide will run about CFA 10,000.

See and do

• Museum. There is a small museum that you can also check out for a fee.
• Sacred baobab tree. An enormous baobab a short distance from Nadoba.

Buy

• Souvenir shop, naturally

Go next

• Kara. The closest large town
• Natitingou and Tanguiéta in Benin