africa • BEN
Benin
Location marker · geographic overview
9.5° N / 2.25° ETHE WORLD, ONE COUNTRY AT A TIME
- Capital
- Porto-Novo
- Population
- 14,462,724 2024
- Area
- 112,622 km² (year unavailable)
- Languages source-listed
- French
- Currency
- West African CFA franc (XOF)
- Geography
- Coastal country
Population: World Bank 2024. Other facts: REST Countries snapshot. Sources & limitations.
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Discover Benin
FROM THE TRAVEL GUIDE · Benin
Benin is a country in West Africa. You'll find culture through a large collection of palatial ruins and temples of the once powerful Kingdom of Dahomey (1800s–1894). Moreover, Benin is the birthplace of Vodun (Voodoo) and all that goes with it. Vodun is the official religion of the country, and an important part of the life of ordinary Beninese.
Landscape & landmarks
Benin is perhaps best known to the world as the birthplace of the Vodun religion, or voodoo. Voodoo temples, roadside fetishes and fetish markets are found throughout the country, but the best known is the skull and skin-filled fetish market in the Grande Marche du Dantopka, which is Cotonou's overwhelmingly busy, enormous and hectic grand market.Read the see section ↗
Food & everyday culture
In every city/village one will find street vendors selling anything from beans and rice to grilled chicken, goat and turkey.Read the eat section ↗
Excerpts from Wikivoyage contributors, revision 2026-09-16. CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected excerpts; wiki formatting removed; omissions marked […]. Guide wording and any figures belong to this dated source; they do not replace the atlas statistics above. Food descriptions are not official national-dish designations.
A little more to discover +
- National flower
- Not yet verified
- Official national dish
- Not yet verified
- Representative food
- Not yet verified
- Subregion
- Western Africa
- Calling code
- +229
- Internet domain
- .bj
- Land border codes
- BFA, NER, NGA, TGO
Quick facts
- Traffic keeps to the right side of the road. Source ↗
- The country-code web domain is .bj. Source ↗
- The source lists monday as the start of the week. Source ↗
Population: World Bank 2024. Other facts: REST Countries snapshot. Source-matched September 26, 2026; not live data. Sources & limitations.