Wanar and Wassu

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Wanar

   The strangest stones in Africa may be the lyre-shaped ones at Wanar. The site, in the Sine-Saloum region of central Senegal, is among the largest groups of megaliths on the continent, with dozens of circles made of tall, rounded laterite pillars, and among them stand a few unusual forked stones, shaped like a lyre or a letter Y, with a notch cut in the top. Archaeologists think they were made by deliberately splitting the stone, and the form seems to echo the shape of a branched tree. Nobody can say for sure what the shape meant, which is part of the appeal. The stones at Wanar form part of the Senegambian stone circles, listed as World Heritage in 2006.

   Read the complete Wanar write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Wanar is where the day begins. Next is Sine Ngayène.

2. 2. Sine Ngayène

   Sine Ngayene is the largest of the stone circle sites in the Senegambian region, and it lies just across the border from Farafenni, on the Senegalese side. Here, in a field of grass and scattered trees, are dozens of circles made of tall, rust-brown pillars, each cut from laterite, a hard red rock found in the area. The sites of Sine Ngayene, Wassu, Kerbatch and Wanar together form the Senegambian Stone Circles, listed by UNESCO in 2006. The stones stand about two metres high, and some are cut in a distinctive shape, like a lyre, with a notch at the top. The group at Sine Ngayene has more than a thousand stones.

   Read the complete Sine Ngayène write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sine Ngayène comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kerbatch.

3. 3. Kerbatch

   Stones that nobody can explain are scattered across the Gambian countryside, and Kerbatch has some of them. The stone circles of Senegambia, a World Heritage site since 2006, are a group of more than a thousand megaliths in about thirty circles, set in a band of land along the river Gambia and into Senegal. Each stone is a carved pillar of laterite, a rust-red, iron-rich rock that is cut from the ground when it is soft and hardens in the sun, and they stand in rings of ten to twenty, sometimes with a larger stone set to one side. They were raised between roughly the third century BC and the sixteenth century AD, and they mark burials, some of which have been excavated and found to hold skeletons and grave goods.

   Read the complete Kerbatch write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 91 km into the recorded legs you reach Kerbatch. Next is Wassu.

4. 4. Wassu

   Wassu stands beside the Gambia River in a country that is a narrow strip of land on either bank of the water, and the stone circles that give it fame belong to a landscape that most people never think about. The circles are rings of laterite pillars, some standing taller than a person, set in a grassy clearing and placed with a precision that suggests careful planning. Archaeologists believe they were burial monuments, raised over about a thousand years from the first millennium BC or soon after, by a society that has left no written records. In 2006, UNESCO listed the circles of Wassu, with those of Kerbatch, Sine Ngayène and Wanar in Senegal, as the Senegambian Stone Circles.

   Read the complete Wassu write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Wassu, about halfway. Next is back through Kerbatch.

5. 5. back through Kerbatch

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kerbatch write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Kerbatch sits at 167 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sine Ngayène.

6. 6. back through Sine Ngayène

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Sine Ngayène write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Sine Ngayène comes up about 208 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wanar.

7. 7. Wanar

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Wanar write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Wanar closes the day.