Dakar travel guide

Senegal · Top sights · trending spots

Dakar occupies the Cap-Vert peninsula, the westernmost point of continental Africa, and gave its name to the rally that finished here for thirty years until the route was abandoned in 2008. Gorée, twenty minutes out by ferry, was a slaving station and is now a World Heritage site kept as a place of memory.

Lake Retba turns pink from the algae in its brine and salt is still harvested from it by hand. The African Renaissance Monument stands forty-nine metres on a hill. The city's mbalax rhythm plays everywhere.

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Top 10 sights in Dakar

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

© Richard N Horne · CC BY 4.0
African Renaissance Monument
A bronze figure of a man, woman and child fifty metres high on a hill above Dakar, unveiled in 2010 for the fiftieth anniversary of independence. It cost a reported twenty-seven million dollars and was built by North Korean workers.
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IFAN Museum of African Arts
One of the oldest art museums in West Africa, founded in 1936 and now named after the naturalist Théodore Monod. Its masks and figures cover the whole region from Mali to Nigeria, and Senghor made it central to the cultural programme of the new state.
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© Rignese · CC BY-SA 3.0
Dakar Grand Mosque
The main mosque of Dakar, in the Medina quarter, opened in 1964 with Moroccan help and marked by a minaret sixty-seven metres high. It is lit at night and visible from much of the peninsula.
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Museum of Black Civilizations
A national museum opened in Dakar in 2018 with Chinese funding, covering the contribution of African civilisations to the world. It has been at the centre of the argument about returning objects taken during the colonial period.
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© Malickdieye38 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Massalikoul Djinane Mosque
A mosque opened in Dakar in 2019 and built by the Mouride brotherhood, the largest in West Africa with room for thirty thousand worshippers. Its scale made it a statement of the brotherhood's place in Senegalese life.
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© No machine-readable author provided. Vincent Ricci assumed (based on copyright c · CC BY-SA 3.0
Our Lady of Victories Cathedral, Dakar
The Catholic cathedral of Dakar, built between 1924 and 1936 on the site of a Lebou burial ground, in a style that mixes Sudanese and Byzantine forms. It serves a small but long-established congregation.
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© Laminegueye36 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Mosquée de la Divinité
A mosque at Ouakam finished in 1997, standing on the shore below the Mamelles cliffs with two minarets over the Atlantic. It was built after a local man's vision, on ground the community cleared themselves, and the surf breaks directly in front of it.
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Hann Forest and Zoological Park
A forest reserve and zoo in the Hann Bel-Air district, one of the few large green spaces in Dakar. Its plantation of introduced trees dates from the colonial period and is now a park for the surrounding neighbourhoods.
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Historical Museum of Senegal
A museum on Gorée in the Fort d'Estrées, a nineteenth-century French battery, running through Senegalese history from prehistory to independence. It is usually visited with the slave house on the same island.
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© Bess Sadler from Palo Alto, CA, USA · CC BY 2.0
Palais de la République
A residence built in 1902 for the governor-general of French West Africa and now the palace of the president of Senegal, in the Plateau quarter above the harbour.
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Popular tickets & tours in Dakar

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Trending now

Based on 2025 Wikipedia pageviews — popular places beyond the top 10.

© Aboubacarkhoraa · CC BY-SA 4.0
Place de l'Obélisque
A square in the middle of Dakar laid out around an obelisk to the independence won in 1960. Rallies and marches gather here, and the road out towards the airport runs from its edge.
Tiqets Klook
Musée de la Mer
A museum on Gorée holding some six thousand marine specimens from Senegalese waters, along with documents on the fisheries. It occupies one of the island's colonial buildings, a few streets from the slave house.
Tiqets Klook

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Top 10 sights in Dakar

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

African Renaissance Monument

A bronze figure of a man, woman and child fifty metres high on a hill above Dakar, unveiled in 2010 for the fiftieth anniversary of independence. It cost a reported twenty-seven million dollars and was built by North Korean workers.

Tiqets

Klook

IFAN Museum of African Arts

One of the oldest art museums in West Africa, founded in 1936 and now named after the naturalist Théodore Monod. Its masks and figures cover the whole region from Mali to Nigeria, and Senghor made it central to the cultural programme of the new state.

Tiqets

Klook

Dakar Grand Mosque

The main mosque of Dakar, in the Medina quarter, opened in 1964 with Moroccan help and marked by a minaret sixty-seven metres high. It is lit at night and visible from much of the peninsula.

Tiqets

Klook

Museum of Black Civilizations

A national museum opened in Dakar in 2018 with Chinese funding, covering the contribution of African civilisations to the world. It has been at the centre of the argument about returning objects taken during the colonial period.

Tiqets

Klook

Massalikoul Djinane Mosque

A mosque opened in Dakar in 2019 and built by the Mouride brotherhood, the largest in West Africa with room for thirty thousand worshippers. Its scale made it a statement of the brotherhood's place in Senegalese life.

Tiqets

Klook

Our Lady of Victories Cathedral, Dakar

The Catholic cathedral of Dakar, built between 1924 and 1936 on the site of a Lebou burial ground, in a style that mixes Sudanese and Byzantine forms. It serves a small but long-established congregation.

Tiqets

Klook

Mosquée de la Divinité

A mosque at Ouakam finished in 1997, standing on the shore below the Mamelles cliffs with two minarets over the Atlantic. It was built after a local man's vision, on ground the community cleared themselves, and the surf breaks directly in front of it.

Tiqets

Klook

Hann Forest and Zoological Park

A forest reserve and zoo in the Hann Bel-Air district, one of the few large green spaces in Dakar. Its plantation of introduced trees dates from the colonial period and is now a park for the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Tiqets

Klook

Historical Museum of Senegal

A museum on Gorée in the Fort d'Estrées, a nineteenth-century French battery, running through Senegalese history from prehistory to independence. It is usually visited with the slave house on the same island.

Tiqets

Klook

Palais de la République

A residence built in 1902 for the governor-general of French West Africa and now the palace of the president of Senegal, in the Plateau quarter above the harbour.

Tiqets

Klook

Trending now

Based on 2025 Wikipedia pageviews — popular places beyond the top 10.

Place de l'Obélisque

A square in the middle of Dakar laid out around an obelisk to the independence won in 1960. Rallies and marches gather here, and the road out towards the airport runs from its edge.

Tiqets

Klook

Musée de la Mer

A museum on Gorée holding some six thousand marine specimens from Senegalese waters, along with documents on the fisheries. It occupies one of the island's colonial buildings, a few streets from the slave house.

Tiqets

Klook