Benin

Benin is a country in West Africa.

It is long and thin. Its short coast has sandy beaches. In the far north is the big Niger River. The capital is called Porto-Novo.

Benin is shaped like a long, narrow wedge. It stretches about 675 kilometers north from the Gulf of Guinea, where it has a short coastline, to the Niger River on its northern border.

Porto-Novo is the official capital, where the lawmakers meet, but Cotonou is the biggest city and the main port, and the president lives there. Benin was ruled by France until 1960. About 15 million people lived there in 2025, and more than two-thirds of them live in the south.

Benin is a narrow wedge of territory extending about 675 km north from the Gulf of Guinea, where it has a 121 km (75-mile) coastline, to the Niger River, which forms part of the border with Niger. Porto-Novo, the official capital, is the seat of the legislature, while the president and most ministers reside in Cotonou, the largest city, chief port and de facto administrative capital.

The present name, adopted in 1975, comes from the Bight of Benin rather than the old kingdom of Benin, which lies in Nigeria; the colony had been called Dahomey after the kingdom it absorbed. The World Bank put the population at 14,814,460 in 2025. The southern quarter of the country holds more than two-thirds of the people, and nearly half the population is urban.

Cotonou is the biggest city.

It has a busy port by the sea. Porto-Novo is the capital. At Abomey, kings built palaces with clay walls and colorful pictures.

Cotonou is Benin's biggest city and its main port, full of shops, markets and cafés. Porto-Novo, the capital, has the National Library and a museum about Benin's many peoples.

Inland, at Abomey, twelve kings of the Kingdom of Dahomey ruled one after another from 1625 to 1900. They built ten palaces inside walls of hard-packed earth, decorated with colorful pictures sculpted into the walls. The Royal Palaces of Abomey became a World Heritage Site in 1985, and part of them is now a history museum.

Cotonou is the focus of the country's commercial and political life; Porto-Novo, seat of the legislature, has the National Library and an ethnographic museum, and Parakou is the main northern market town, dating from colonial times. Ouidah, the old coastal trading center, has a history museum, and the former Portuguese fort there was used in the slave trade.

UNESCO inscribed the Royal Palaces of Abomey in 1985. From 1625 to 1900, twelve kings ruled the Kingdom of Dahomey (Abomey), which grew from the mid-17th century under its founder Wegbaja's precept that the kingdom should always be made greater. The 47-hectare site holds ten palaces, built beside or on top of one another as each king succeeded, enclosed by cob walls and organized around outer, inner and private courtyards; polychrome bas-reliefs are a key feature. A historical museum and artisans' village now occupy part of the site.

Benin's coast has lagoons, calm water behind the beach.

Coconut palms grow on the sand. In the north are rocky hills. A hot, dry wind blows in winter.

Benin has five natural regions. The coast is low and sandy, with lagoons of calm water behind it and coconut palms growing on the sand. Behind it lies a fertile clay plateau with a big marsh, then four low plateaus around towns such as Abomey.

In the northwest rise the Atakora Mountains, and in the northeast, plains slope down to the Niger River. The south has two rainy seasons and two dry seasons. The north has one long rainy season from May to September, and from December to March the dusty harmattan wind blows from the northeast.

Britannica describes five natural regions: a low sandy coast, essentially a long sandbar backed by lagoons that reach the sea only at Grand-Popo and Cotonou; the fertile barre (clay) country with the Lama Marsh between Abomey and Allada; four plateaus around Abomey, Kétou, Aplahoué and Zagnanado; the Atakora Mountains in the northwest, a quartzite continuation of the Togo Mountains and the divide between the Volta and Niger basins; and the Niger plains in the northeast. The Ouémé rises in the Atakora and flows about 450 km south, splitting near its mouth between Porto-Novo Lagoon and Nokoué Lake.

The south has an equatorial climate with two rainy and two dry seasons; rainfall rises eastward from about 800 mm at Grand-Popo to about 1,270 mm at Cotonou and Porto-Novo, with temperatures of 22–34 °C and high humidity. The north has a single rainy season (May to September, heaviest in August), with about 1,346 mm in the Atakora and central Benin and about 965 mm farther north; the harmattan blows from December to March, and March highs can reach 43 °C.

Elephants live in Benin's big northern parks.

Lions, leopards and buffalo live there too. Monkeys chatter in the trees. Crocodiles rest by the rivers.

Most of the rainforest that once covered southern Benin has been cleared for farms and palm trees. The wildest places are in the far north, in W National Park and Pendjari National Park. There, elephants, leopards, lions, antelope, monkeys, wild pigs, crocodiles and buffalo live, along with pythons and many birds such as guinea fowl.

These parks are part of the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex, shared with Niger and Burkina Faso. UNESCO says it has the largest group of elephants in West Africa and the only healthy group of lions in the region.

The original rainforest of the south has largely been cleared except near rivers, replaced by oil palms, rônier palms and food crops; north of Abomey forest mixes with savanna, giving way to savanna farther north. W National Park, about 5,020 km² and extending into Burkina Faso and Niger, and Pendjari National Park, about 2,750 km², hold elephants, leopards, lions, antelope, monkeys, wild pigs, crocodiles and buffalo, many snakes including pythons and puff adders, and birds such as guinea fowl.

Both belong to the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex (UNESCO), 1,714,831 ha across three countries. UNESCO credits it with about 85 percent of West Africa's savanna elephants, the only viable lion population in the area, probably the only cheetah population in West Africa, and the rare semi-deciduous Bondjagou forest inside Pendjari. It also notes threats from poaching, illegal grazing and spreading farmland.

About 15 million people live in Benin.

People speak many languages, like Fon and Yoruba. French is used in schools. Many families grow corn, cassava and yams.

Many different peoples live in Benin. The Fon are the largest group, about two in every five people. The Yoruba live mainly in the southeast, and the Bariba and Somba live in the north. Each group has its own language, and French is the official language and the language of schools.

Around the towns, farmers grow corn, cassava and yams, and oil palms are grown to sell. Benin's artists make carved wooden masks, bronze figures and pottery, and colorful appliquéd cloths that tell the history of the kings of Dahomey.

The Fon make up about two-fifths of the population; the Yoruba, related to Nigeria's Yoruba, about one-eighth; and the Bariba of the northeast, whose towns such as Nikki were once kingdoms, about one-tenth. Other groups include the Adja peoples, the Goun, the Somba (Ditamari) of the northwest and the Fulani. French is official and the language of instruction; Fon, Gen (Mina), Bariba, Yoruba and Dendi are the most widely spoken African languages. Almost half the population is Christian, about one-fourth Muslim and about one-fourth follows traditional beliefs, including Vodun.

Some two-fifths of people are under 15, and Benin's population growth rate is among the highest in the world. Corn, cassava and yams are grown intensively around the towns, and oil palms are the main cash crop of the barre and plateaus. Britannica lists carved wooden masks used in ceremonies, bronze statuettes, appliquéd tapestries recounting the history of Dahomey's kings and the Yoruba guelede masks of the Porto-Novo region; the Somba region in the northwest is known for its thatched, turreted houses.