The painted walls
Geometric designs.
Zaongo Christian Marie Michel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zaongo Christian Marie Michel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zaongo Christian Marie Michel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zaongo Christian Marie Michel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zaongo Christian Marie Michel — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Royal Court of Tiébélé is a traditional architectural compound in the town of Tiébélé in southern Burkina Faso, near the Ghana border. The chief of the Kassena people and his household live here. It is famous for its earthen houses painted with black, white and red geometric designs, and UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List on 26 July 2024. Sources date the compound to more than five hundred years ago, at the foot of a hill in low-lying land. It covers an irregular circular area of about 1.2 hectares, with a sacred hill, an ancestral altar and a red fig tree. High walls joined to the house walls surround it, giving it a clearly defensive character. You see round and square earthen houses with small low doors, their walls painted with triangles, zigzags and diamonds. Women of the community repaint these designs regularly with coloured earth. Small courtyards, clay pots and granary huts with conical thatched roofs lie between the houses. It is about 154 km from Ouagadougou in a straight line. Visits go with a guide from the community, so respect the homes that are lived in and ask before photographing people. The UK Foreign Office currently advises against all travel to the whole of Burkina Faso, so read the current advice before any planning.
Geometric designs.
Low and narrow.
Thatched roofs.
Tiébélé town, Centre-Sud Region, Burkina Faso
Women of the community, who repaint them regularly with coloured earth.
Yes, the UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to the whole country.