Thirty kilometres east of Ouagadougou, on an exposed granite shelf near the village of Laongo, an open-air sculpture park has grown over thirty years of biennial sculpture symposia. International and Burkinabé artists are invited to carve into the bare rock — figures, faces, abstract forms — and the results are left in place.
The site rewards a half-day. The granite itself is striking, the works themselves vary widely in quality, and the silence in the middle of the bush is its own attraction. Bring water and a sun hat; the rock holds the heat well into the afternoon.