Ruins of Loropéni

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Remains of defensive walls, May 2016
Location	Loropéni, Loropéni Department, Poni Province, Sud-Ouest Region, Burkina Faso
Criteria	Cultural: (iii)
Reference	1225rev
Inscription	2009 (33rd Session)
Area	1.113 ha (2.8 acres)
Buffer zone	2.784 km2 (1.1 sq mi)
Coordinates	10°18′37″N 3°33′46″W / 10.31028°N 3.56278°W / 10.31028; -3.56278
Location of Ruins of Loropéni in Burkina Faso

The ruins of Loropéni (French: Ruines de Loropéni) are a medieval heritage site near the town of Loropéni in southern Burkina Faso. They were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2009. These ruins were the country's first World Heritage site. The site, which spans 1.113 hectares (2.75 acres), includes an array of stone walls that comprised a medieval fortress, the best preserved of ten in the area. They date back at least a thousand years. The settlement was occupied by the Lohron or Kulango people and prospered from the trans-Saharan gold trade, reaching its height between the 14th and 17th centuries. It was abandoned in the early 19th century.^[1]

Gaoua town in Poni Province in Burkina Faso is considered the nearest town to the ruins of Loropéni. The archaeological site is overgrown by shrubbery and dense trees, making it hardly visible. The ruins walls stand at a height of 6 meters and expand at area of 11,000 square meters (approximately 2.7 acres), which piqued archaeologists and scientists interest in discovering what Loropéni ruins were meant to encompass beyond residents and abodes.^[2]

Loropéni is believed to have been set up by kingdoms in West Africa which strove to secure a foothold in the regional trade. Ghana Empire had a firm grip at that time on the gold mines in Bambuk and Boure, as roads leading from the mines headed into Koumbi Saleh, the empire’s capital, before proceeding north; and by law, all gold nuggets belonged to the emperor. The early Trans-Saharan routes did not interject the general area of Loropéni, but was close to the ancient city of Djenné, located to its northwest, and Timbuktu and Gao, located to the north; Timbuktu and Gao were termini for the Trans-Saharan trade. It was believed that Loropéni witnessed gold trade due to its proximity to the two Trans-Saharan termini.^[3]

The imposing height of the ruins walls was hence allocated to preserving gold inside the ruins, yet these deductions were made from circumstantial evidence.

The Gan/Kaan people, a minority group whose homeland includes the site of the ruins, were believed to have constructed the Loropéni ruins. On that account, this version of events states that Tokpa Farma, the Kaan Iya (king/ruler), built the site with the intention of moving the capital from Obiré, which is eight kilometers from Loropéni; however, the revised timeline makes it clear that the Kaan could not have built the fortifications but occupied and abandoned them.

The Mali Empire was the source of a significant gold price collapse that affected Cairo, Mecca, and Medina for ten years. It was triggered by its monarch, Mansa Musa, who donated a significant amount of gold during his hajj to Mecca in 1324.^[4][5] Loropeni's gold-rich prosperity coincided with the Mali emperor showering everyone with gold dust; as with the Ghana Empire, its predecessor. The Lobi people, who were under pressure from the Ashanti kingdom's constant expansion from the south, crossed the Mouhoun river to reach their ancient homeland, which they knew to be situated to the right of the Black Volta, or Mouhoun River. This territory is now part of the present-day nation of Ghana.^[6][7][8]

The only known connection between the Lorhon peoples and the ruins is that by the tenth century, they were known to be in Kong, a region to the south of the region. As things stand, it is assumed that the Lorhon peoples may have had some involvement with the ruins in Loropéni, but even that connection is vague at best. Before its ascent to imperial power, Kong was ruled by the Senufos and went on to become an empire (1710–1898) that included territory in both Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.

Other groups moved farther and ended up in what is now Burkina Faso, driving the Lorhons into the marginally safer northern parts. More people are knowledgeable of these mid-1700s traverses northward than of the first movement that brought them to Kong.

Its fortunes declined as the Trans-Saharan trade collapsed along with the empires of Mali and Songhai to the north. Trade shifted to the coast, where Europeans had established trading posts, and gold was now sourced from Ashanti holdings closer to the coast, making it unfavorable to extract gold.^[9]

The Loropeni ruins are the best-preserved remains of the larger Lobi Ruins. The Committee of Protection and Management for the Ruins of Loropéni formed a good basis for management of the ruins as a focal point for sustainable development within the local community,^[10] however the site was severely impacted by environmental conditions, including increasing rainfall variability and extreme temperature cycles.^[11]

• Somé, Magloire, and Lassina Simporé. Lieux de mémoire, patrimoine et histoire en Afrique de l’Ouest: Aux origines des Ruines de Loropéni, Burkina Faso. Archives contemporaines, 2014.
• Royer, Bertrand. Le fil d’Ariane du patrimoine. Du musée ethnographique de Gaoua au site UNESCO de Loropéni (Burkina Faso). Géographie et cultures 79 (2011): 109-125.
• Royer, Bertrand. "Patrimoine Mondial de l'Unesco et mise en valeur des ruines de Loropéni." Net et terrain: ethnographie de la n@ture en Afrique (2011): 94-122.

• YouTube video by NHK Japan