Dakar sits at the tip of the Cap-Vert peninsula, making it the westernmost city on the African mainland. It grew from a small fishing village into a major French colonial port before becoming the capital of an independent Senegal in 1960.

Just offshore lies Gorée Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the largest historical hubs of the transatlantic slave trade. It preserves the «House of Slaves», now a memorial documenting that tragic era.