W National Park

W National Park takes its name from a double bend the Niger river carves through gallery forest and open savanna where it meets Benin and Burkina Faso, and it once held the region's last lion population along with elephants and a genuine density of birdlife. Game drives ran along the riverbank in the dry months when animals concentrated at the remaining water. Inscribed as world heritage in 1996 as part of a park shared across all three countries, the whole complex now sits inside one of the most dangerous tri-border zones in the Sahel and cannot be visited safely at present.