Things to do in Yamoussoukro

Landmark · On the Abidjan road, edge of town

Pierre Fakhoury's basilica, consecrated by John Paul II in September 1990: 158 metres tall, a 90-metre dome, 8,400 m² of stained glass — more, it is said, than all of France's cathedrals combined — on a 130-hectare site whose esplanade holds 300,000.

Local tip: Go late afternoon: the pink-stone colonnades and marble esplanade are brutal at midday, and the interior is one of the few reliably air-conditioned public spaces in the city. It is not the cathedral, incidentally — Saint Augustine, three kilometres away, is the bishop's seat.

Nature · Around the presidential compound

Three artificial lakes dug in the 1950s around Houphouët-Boigny's palace and stocked with Nile crocodiles since 1953 — animals approaching a tonne, which he treated as sacred and fed in person.

Local tip: Watch from the perimeter railing and keep the camera pointed at the water: this is a working presidential compound and photographing the palace will get you stopped. The long-serving keeper was killed by one of the crocodiles in August 2012, after which handlers were barred from entering the enclosure — so do not expect the old feeding show.

Culture · Central Yamoussoukro

Olivier-Clément Cacoub's thirty-metre marble complex, built between 1977 and 1987: a 2,000-seat amphitheatre with eight-language interpretation, a 5,200 m² library with restoration workshops, and a peace museum. UNESCO holds the keys and awards the Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize here.

Local tip: This is the building the Senate physically sat in from 2019 until its own headquarters opened — so if you want to see the moment the capital transfer became real, it happened here rather than at the palace.

Neighborhood · North of the centre, three sites

A thousand hectares of engineering school: eleven grandes écoles, 3,008 student rooms, two university restaurants, three health centres and two sports complexes, feeding the country's toughest entrance concours.

Local tip: The maquis strip serving the campus is where the city's under-thirties actually are — livelier, cheaper and open far later than anything near the monuments.

Landmark · Beside the Hôtel Président

Eighteen holes by the Welsh architect Dave Thomas, opened by Houphouët-Boigny in March 1980 across 75 hectares, with a Roger Taillibert clubhouse of vast concrete tents. Gary Player and Vijay Singh have played it.

Local tip: The six-hectare central lake has crocodiles in it. Whatever the shot is worth, do not go in after your ball. Open Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays.

Nature · ~40 km northwest

A 1,700 km² reservoir stretching some 150 km behind a 174 MW dam finished in 1972, now landing around 20,000 tonnes of fish a year for communities that used to farm the valley floor.

Local tip: The history is not abstract: sixty villages went under and more than a hundred thousand people were displaced to build this. Grilled lake fish at the landing sites is the regional specialty and the reason to make the drive.