Loropeni Ruins

Spanning lands that cross the modern borders of Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana, the Loropeni ruins are part of the larger Lobi Ruins, a 120-mile-by-60-mile cultural landscape, created between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. This area served as a refuge for various ethnic groups migrating from the south, and became a center for gold mining and an important commercial trade route for goods as well as slaves. 

The Loropeni ruins consist of a massive (2.5 acres) quadrangular-shaped stone and earthen rampart complex, including walls that reach 20 feet high and almost four feet wide in places. Today the ruins are surrounded by a 670-acre buffer zone that limits uncontrolled farming and bush fires to ensure their preservation and to protect associated sites, such as quarrying pits. Approximately 80% of the original rampart and partition walls still remain; however, the ruins have suffered from structural weaknesses and have lost some exterior stone layers in places, particularly in walls exposed to tropical rains and rough winds. Rodent activity has weakened the foundations in some places, and vegetation pushed up against the walls, affecting their stability. The majority of stone cover on the lower courses of walls has disappeared, most likely due to frequent bush fires during the dry season and rising damp during the rainy season.

The Loropeni ruins were placed on the 2008 Watch and, following listing, a conservation plan was developed.

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