Saint Louis, Sénégal
a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Saint-Louis or Saint Louis, known to local Wolof people as Ndar, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. The island and city are connected to the mainland by a land bridge. Saint Louis, founded in 1659, is the oldest colonial city on the western African coast and was the administrative capital of the French West African territories of Mauritania and Senegal. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Sénégal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis was the capital of the French colony of Senegal from 1673 until 1902 and French West Africa from 1895 until 1902, when the capital was moved to Dakar.
The town was an important economic center during French West Africa, but it is less important now. However it still has important industries, including tourism, a commercial center, a center of sugar production, and fishing. The success of the tourism industry is in part due to the city being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. The city is, however, also vulnerable to climate change : the rising sea level is expected to threaten the city center and perhaps damage historical parts of the city in the very near future. Moreover, other issues, such as overfishing is causing ripple effects in the local economy.
These photos are not intended to be works of art, but rather simply as pre-reconnaissance reference aids.
