Ouidah

Ouidah is small, sandy, and utterly monumental. For over two centuries this town was one of the Atlantic slave trade's principal ports: hundreds of thousands of captives walked its final four kilometres of red earth — now the memorial-lined Route des Esclaves — to ships waiting off the beach. The Door of No Return arch stands where the path meets the ocean, and walking it remains one of the most affecting experiences a traveler can have anywhere on the continent. Ouidah is equally the spiritual capital of Vodun. The Temple of Pythons faces the basilica across a shared square; the Sacred Forest of Kpassè shelters shrines and statuary among centuries-old trees; and every January the town hosts Vodun Days, a festival of ceremonies, Egungun and Zangbeto masquerades, and beachfront concerts around the January 10 national holiday. Between the memory sites, Ouidah is a gentle, walkable town of faded Afro-Portuguese facades, the Ouidah Museum of History in the old Portuguese fort, and a slow beach scene along the Atlantic.