The Ultimate Natural Domes of Fabedougou

The amazing weathered rocks in the village of Fabedougou, near Banfora, in south-western Burkina. Faso Domes have an entirely different origin. Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, covers an area of 274,200 square kilometers and its capital is Ouagadougou. The African country village Fabedougou has around 1,000 populations. The Natural Domes of Fabedougou very closely resemble to the famous sandstone towers of Bungle Bungle Range in Australia, hardly half a million years old.

The Domes de Fabedougou is a natural phenomenon of rock sculpted by wind and erosion like a stack of pancakes.  The sandstones comprising the Domes of Fabedougou are approximately two billion years old or Middle Proterozoic. But not the Domes of Fabedougou. Generally, a two billion year old rock would have been metamorphosed by the severe heat and pressure generated by the dynamic nature of the Earth’s crust.

In spite of being very old, these sandstones have been hardly metamorphosed and are astonishingly young looking. Keeping the time in mind, it is surprising that they are so well-preserved that some of these rocks even have ripples and dunes created by ancient water and wind flow. Tese Domes are actually ancient sand dunes. Geological experts say this entire area was once under a big ocean packed with free-flowing sediments. Some layers are extremely hard to others, so they were more protected from erosion.               

Therefore, as the time passes, that the sediments settled down and compacted to form sedimentary rocks of different thickness. Although, going pass a process of weathering and fracturing these rocks were molded into domes and craggy fingers pointing skyward. Differential weathering gives the rocks their layered looked, with each layer weathering at a different rate depending upon their composition.

The magnificent hauntingly beautiful Domes de Fabedougou undisturbed, and better for their desolation, bar local cows and herders. They are there for the climbing, and there are some easy ascents up the cracked sides of the domes, which sit side by side like a series of enormous urey iuloos.