Abomey

About Abomey

Earthen walls, royal bas-reliefs and living vodun shrines make Abomey the place where the story of the Kingdom of Dahomey is still told on site. From the 1600s until the French conquest of 1892, a line of Fon kings ruled from here, each adding a palace to a vast walled compound in the heart of town.

When French troops closed in, King Béhanzin set much of the city alight before withdrawing, and only part of the royal enclosure survived. What remains was inscribed by UNESCO as the Royal Palaces of Abomey in 1985, and the restored palaces of Ghezo and Glèlè now hold the Historical Museum of Abomey. Around them, families of craftspeople still sew the bright appliqué cloths whose symbols once told the deeds of each king.

Today Abomey is a calm provincial town of around 100,000 people in the Zou department, linked to the busy market town of Bohicon next door. Give it a full day for the palaces, Place Goho and the shrines, and add a short trip to the underground dwellings of Agongointo-Zoungoudo.