Just over two hours down the Atlantic coast from capital Accra, Elmina was the first of a string of castles and forts built by Europeans along the Gold Coast to support trading routes (and eventually the transatlantic slave trade). It was built by the Portuguese in 1482 and is part of one of Ghana's two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions.


(Damien Halleux Radermecker)