Dassa-Zoumé

Dassa-Zoumé sits among forty-one granite hills in the middle of Benin, which is where the region's name of Collines comes from. The Grotte Mariale, a shrine to Our Lady in a cave at the foot of one of the hills, draws one of the largest Catholic pilgrimages in West Africa each August, when tens of thousands camp on the slopes. The hills themselves are climbed for the view over the plain, and the town keeps a royal palace of the Idaasha kingdom. Yam is the staple here and the yam festival marks the harvest.