Video: Fadiut - an island of shells in Senegal
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The Senegalese village of Joal Fadiout is one of the most interesting places on the planet. Despite the fact that there is no snow in Africa, traveling through its snow-white blinding streets, tourists constantly hear a crunch under their feet. The reason is simple - Fadiut island, on which the fishing village is located, completely consists of shells.
Joal Fadiut is considered to be the most beautiful place in northern Senegal. It is located on the mainland, which is connected by two 800-meter wooden bridges to the island of Fadiut. If you believe the legends, then it arose from the shells of mollusks, which were hunted by local residents for centuries. Gutted shells mixed with the roots of mangroves of reeds and giant baobabs, forming a monolithic block-island.
There are a lot of shells in Joal Fadiut: they are used in construction and exterior decoration of buildings, they are lined with streets, and, of course, local merchants make all kinds of trinkets out of them that you can buy as souvenirs.
Many tourists are attracted not only by the amazing buildings, but also by the local cemetery. In fact, it is located on another separate island connected to Fadiut by a bridge. Almost all of the graves here are Christian, however, there are also several Muslim burials. The cemetery is also completely covered with shells, which makes the landscape very picturesque. By the way, local residents have a custom: as a rule, they will bequeath them to be buried with a bottle of sum-sum (a local low-alcohol drink), so that it would be more fun for them in the next world.
Joal-Fadiut is the only place in Senegal with a tourist committee, which makes life much easier for travelers who come here. True, one of the main problems that tourists have to face is the ban on the passage of cars, so you can only walk around the island, strewn with shells.
By the way, the African village is not the only place where you can see an abundance of seashells. A grotto decorated with seashells can also be found on the European continent - in the British city of Margaret.
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