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Why visit Elmina?

Elmina is a historic fishing town on Ghana's Central Region coast, a short drive west of Cape Coast. It grew up around Elmina Castle, also known as St George's Castle, which the Portuguese began building in 1482. It is the oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa and later passed to the Dutch and then the British. For centuries it was a major hub of the transatlantic slave trade, and today it is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with other forts and castles along the Ghanaian coast.

Guided tours lead through the dungeons, the courtyards and the Door of No Return, a powerful and sobering experience that many visitors from the African diaspora come specifically to make. On the hill opposite stands Fort St. Jago, built by the Dutch, with wide views over the town. Below the castle, the busy harbour on the Benya Lagoon is packed with brightly painted wooden fishing canoes, and the streets hold the colourful posuban shrines of the town's traditional Asafo companies. The Bakatue festival, held in early July, marks the start of the fishing season. Kakum National Park, with its canopy walkway high above the rainforest, is an easy day trip inland, and quiet beach resorts line the coast on either side of town.

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