The Ivory Coast

The Ivory Coast or Cote d’Ivoire is a West African country with beach resorts, rainforests, and a French-colonial legacy. The capital city of Cote d’Ivoire is Yamoussoukro.

This city is best known for its enormous Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro with its lovely stained-glass windows and a towering dome.

Grand-Bassam is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here you can see elegant Parisian mansions and crafted colonial municipal buildings in the Ancient Bassam District. It was once the capital of the French Ivory Coast.

Visitors can see many impressive buildings like the great Cathedral Sacre Coeur.

The New Grand-Bassam is home to lovely beaches and resort hotels.

Visit Abidjan a city located on the southern Atlantic coast. It is the country’s major urban center. Its skyscrapers rise about the Ebrie Lagoon.

Among the modern landmarks is La Pyramide, a ziggurat-like building.

There is St. Paul’s Cathedral which is a high rising structure with a massive cross.

At the Le Musee des Civilisations de Cote d’Ivoire, visitors can see artwork, cultural relics, and handicrafts.

Take a hike to the soaring Toura Mountains deep in the heartland of the country and the rustic town of Man. The peaks of Tonkoui and Toura are the two highest on the Ivory Coast. There are bamboo forests to explore where you’ll see multi-colored butterflies and in the undergrowth rare insects.

Here you’ll find the Cascades Waterfall which always draws crowds. There are plantain farms and cocoa plantations.

The Tai National Park stretches for more than 3,000 square kilometers. This is one of the greatest protected areas of what remains of the Upper Guinean rainforests.

This is a feral land with colossal river valleys, moist woods, mountains, and rolling savannah. Making their home here are the endangered pygmy hippopotamus, swinging olive colobus monkeys, duikers, and chimpanzees.

Tiny Jacqueville offers stretches of Ivorian ivory sands right down to the sea. Here you’ll find sun-drenched beaches and pineapple groves. There are clusters of old Parisian arcades and colonial buildings in the shade of palm trees. Beach huts and timber longboats along the shore.

Jutting out from the southern forests of the Ivory Coast you’ll find the harbors of San Pedro. This is the second-largest port town in the country shipping out cargos of metal ore and minerals and fish.

Korhogo today is a quiet place. This mud-caked city has fascinating and bustling bazaars offering cotton, cashew nuts and spices, and much more. Woodcarvers Quarter has many whittled crafts and the Village des Tisserands is home to batik cloth makers.

Bouake is the crossroads between the Ivorian North and the Ivorian South. It sits between the Atlantic Coast, the northern borders, Guinea in the east, and Ghana in the west. Of interest are the markets and arts and crafts.

Along the Ghanaian borderlands, you’ll find the Comoe National Park for eco-tourists and outdoor lovers. Here are gallery forests and rolling savannah plains and the Comoe River.

Visitors can see yellow-backed duikers and Mona monkeys, colobuses and pangolins, leopards, lions, and much more.

The most celebrated beach resort in the country is Assouinde. You’ll find stretches of yellow sand and great hotels and accommodations. On one side are mirror-like lagoons and winding waterways and on the other the Atlantic surf.

Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve stretches over the borders of the Ivory Coast into southern Guinea. It has mountainous peaks and UNESCO considers it to be one of the most important nature reserves in all of West Africa. Its habitats range from rare lowland rainforests to grass plains. Hikers can see chimpanzees, rare butterflies, alien toad species, and otter shrews.