Sine-Saloum

The Salum delta or Sine-Salum delta (Saloum in French) is a river delta in Senegal at the mouth of the Salum River from where it flows into the North Atlantic Ocean. The delta covers 180,000 hectares and extends 72.5 kilometers along the coast and 35 kilometers inland.2

In 2011, a portion of 145,811 hectares of the delta was designated a World Heritage Site of UNESCO. The place is a labyrinth of brackish water channels with more than 200 islands and islets, mangrove forests, Atlantic coastal areas and a dry forest.

The Saloum Delta National Park covers 76,000 hectares of the delta .

Some of the bird species that nest or spend the winter in the area are the royal tern, the flamingo, the spoonbill, the curlew, the common turnstone and the little sandpiper. In addition to being a valuable breeding ground for birds, the delta contains 218 mounds formed by mollusk shells and in 28 of them handicrafts have been unearthed from funerary sites located in the vicinity of the mounds. These elements have provided important knowledge about the history of human occupation in the area.

UNESCO inscribed the Salum Delta as a World Heritage Site for being important for the understanding of the cultures of various periods of occupation. of the delta and witness to the history of human settlement along the coast in West Africa.