Ruins of Loropéni

The ruins of Loropéni (French: Ruines de Loropéni) are a medieval heritage site near the town of Loropéni in southern Burkina Faso. They were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2009. These ruins were the country's first World Heritage site. The site, which spans 1.113 hectares (2.75 acres), includes an array of stone walls that comprised a medieval fortress, the best preserved of ten in the area. They date back at least a thousand years. The settlement was occupied by the Lohron or Kulango people and prospered from the trans-Saharan gold trade, reaching its height between the 14th and 17th centuries. It was abandoned in the early 19th century.

Gaoua town in Poni Province in Burkina Faso is considered the nearest town to the ruins of Loropéni. The archaeological site is overgrown by shrubbery and dense trees, making it hardly visible. The ruins walls stand at a height of 6 meters and expand at area of 11,000 square meters (approximately 2.7 acres), which piqued archaeologists and scientists interest in discovering what Loropéni ruins were meant to encompass beyond residents and abodes.