Photo: Fawaz.tairou (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Gorée, the small car-free island off Dakar that was a station of the Atlantic slave trade. It starts at the ferry jetty, where the island's history is told from the Portuguese of the 1440s through the Dutch, the French capture of 1677 and the trade in captives, to abolition and the founding of Dakar in 1857. It goes on to the ruins of the Dutch Fort Nassau, Fort d'Estrées of 1852 to 1856, now the historical museum of Senegal, the Statue of the Liberation from Slavery and the former Université des Mutants. Around Place du Gouvernement come the Maritime Museum, the former Governor's Palace, the William Ponty teacher-training college and Saint Charles Church. It ends at the Ancien Musée de la Femme, in a signare's house of 1777, the House of Slaves, where Joseph Ndiaye's account and the historians who question it are both told, the mosque at the foot of Castel Hill, and the plateau of Le Castel. The island is reached by ferry from Dakar's passenger port, a crossing of about twenty minutes.
14 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 19 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 3 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Gorée jetty and beach, Fort Nassau, Fort d'Estrées, Statue de la Libération de l'esclavage, Ancienne Université des Mutants.
Maritime Museum, Place du Gouvernement.
Ancien Palais du Gouverneur, Ancienne École normale William-Ponty, Saint Charles Church, Ancien Musée de la Femme, House of Slaves, Mosquée de Gorée, Le Castel.
The ferry landing in a sheltered cove, where the island's history is told from the Portuguese and Dutch to the French capture of 1677.
A semicircular French battery of 1852 to 1856, later a prison, opened in 1989 as the historical museum of Senegal.
Two embracing figures with broken chains on their wrists, a gift from Guadeloupe, on the Square of Liberty and Human Dignity.
The house of the signare Victoria Albis, built in 1777, which became a museum of Senegalese women's lives in 1994.
The memorial house and its Door of No Return, with Joseph Ndiaye's account and the historians who dispute its role both told.
The rocky plateau above the island, with rusting cannons, gun emplacements and a rangefinder station of 1907 facing the Atlantic.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 14 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 14 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Gorée Island — the House of Slaves and the Old Town, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
14 narration points, including Gorée jetty and beach, Fort Nassau, Fort d'Estrées, Statue de la Libération de l'esclavage and Ancienne Université des Mutants. That is about 17 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 14 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.