Kita is a small Malinké town halfway between Kayes and Bamako on the old Dakar-Niger Railway. It sits in a landscape of rocky hills, baobabs, and dry savanna, dominated by the granite inselberg of Kita-Kourou rising abruptly to the west. The town is best known for its weekly market and for the Sacred Heart Cathedral at the foot of the mountain — one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage sites in West Africa, drawing tens of thousands of pilgrims each November.
There is not much to see in the way of monuments, but the setting is striking and the people are welcoming. Climb Kita-Kourou at dawn for a view across the Manding country, browse the market in the cool of the morning, and pause at the old train station — a piece of French colonial railway architecture left over from a more ambitious era. The best months to come are November through February, when the heat is bearable and the harmattan light is soft.