Cotonou, Benin

Cotonou skyline, Benin
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cotonouskyline.jpg
Author: MVN


Cotonou is the largest city as well as commercial capital of Benin. It is located on the southeastern edge of the country, between the coast of Atlantic Ocean and Lake Nokoué. The city has a population of around one million people (2012 estimate).

Although the official capital of Benin is Porto-Novo, Cotonou houses many of the government departments, making it the de facto capital of the coountry. It also has the main port, airport and railway station of the country. It is indeed the most important city in Benin.

Cotonou began as a small fishing village which was originally part of the Kingdom of Dahomey. In 1851, the French was granted permission to establish a trading post in Cotonou. This led to the ceding of Cotonou and its surrounding territory to France in 1868, during the reign of King Glele. From its humble beginning, Cotonou - which means "mouth of the river of death" - grew to become the principal port in the area.

Places of Interest in Cotonou

Visiting Cotonou

Cotonou is served by the Cadjehoun Airport (COO). It receives flights from Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Bamako, Bata, Brazzaville, Brussels, Casablanca, Conakry, Dakar, Douala, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos, Libreville, Lomé, Malabo, N'Djamena, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou, Paris, and Pointe-Noire.

Cotonou, Benin
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cotonou3.jpg
Author: Dominik Schwarz


Cotonou Cathedral
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cotonoucathedral.jpg
Author: MVN

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.