Wassu Stone Circles
The ancient Wassu Stone Circles, in Gambia, are located around Wassu in the Central River Region and are believed to be burial mounds of Kings and chiefs in ancient times over 1,200 years old and has been dated to between 750-1000 AD, and because of this local legend has it that there is a curse on anyone who disturbs those laid to rest there. This may account as to why they have lasted so long with little human interference.
The stones sizes and circular shapes do vary from 10 to 20 stones with sizes from 4 to 6 metres across. Though they were burial sites the stones themselves are of a younger age than the graves. The average height of each stone column is 5 feet 9 inches. The 11 large concentration of circles have puzzled many a traveller over the centuries and have been the subject of dozens of archaeological excavations since the 1800s.
Excavations were made on them earlier this century but none came closer to laying bare the whys and wherefores of the site than the one carried out about over 30 years ago which revealed their age. What has been found are iron weapons, arrow and spearheads, knives, pottery vessels and bronze ornaments.
The stones were cut out of laterite that occurs in large quarry outcrops in this region and then shaped with iron tools into cylindrical or polygonal shapes. A museum situated at the "Stone Circles" in Wassu Central River Division was opened in 2000. Hundreds of stone circles can be found in The Gambia and Senegambia region. They are part of a geographical grouping of over 1,000 monuments in a wide strip measuring 62 miles wide and along 217 miles of the Gambia River.
This sacred site was declared a National Monument in 1995 and on the 21st July, 2006, 93 monuments in the Senegambia region (Sine Ngayène, Wanar) were declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site.
