A wide variety of landscapes
There are four main geographical areas: the coast, the center of the country, the northwest and the northeast.
The coast is obviously the most populated region. It is the coastal basin where the deltas of the Ouémé (Lake Nokoué) and Mono (Lake Ahémé) rivers have formed a lacustrine and marshy site. The landscape is characterized by a shrubby savannah vegetation, particularly degraded by human activity. However, vestiges of the primary forest are visible in the classified and sacred forests of the region. Numerous palm groves were planted in the 18th century as well as coconut groves, thereafter. The coastline is also very damaged by the exploitation of sand quarries and the establishment of the city of Cotonou and its port. Several sites have, despite everything, been preserved. This is particularly true of the Ouémé River and its banks in the east. Similarly, in the department of Mono in the west, nature is still wild along the river and around the delta. The west coast offers magnificent landscapes around Ouidah and Grand-Popo. Like a cordon of sand, the beaches stretch endlessly between the sea and the lagoon areas towards neighboring Togo. An ideal place for idleness of course! Be careful, however, swimming is dangerous and it is better to just splash around without losing your footing.
Going back to the North, we discover the center of the country. It is in fact a vast plain of savannah with trees and shrubs from which emerge hills with surprising shapes around Dassa and especially Savé where the famous "udders" have "grown"! In this more arid landscape, the main crops are cassava, yams, groundnuts, millet and corn.
As you move into the northeast, particularly towards Parakou, the main town in the region, the savannah gives way to an even more sparse and dry landscape. Agriculture is then dominated by sorghum, corn, yams and cotton. To the north, in the Niger River valley, large herds of cattle also graze, and this is also the location of Regional Park W, a wildlife reserve of great beauty, but inaccessible to visitors for security reasons.
Finally, the northwest is dominated by the Atacora mountain range. This territory has only been affected by man in a few places (especially along the Togolese border) where agriculture is practiced on small areas. Shrubby and wooded savannahs, interspersed with rivers and waterfalls, surround the rocky massifs of the mountains with arid soil. After Natitingou, the Pendjari National Park, one of the most beautiful sanctuaries of flora and fauna in West Africa, comes into view.
The flat country!
Finally, the relief of Benin is relatively flat, with an average altitude of barely 200 meters. The coastal plain, very low, is made up of several coastal strips, separated by marshy shallows and the lagoons that the Mono (Lake Ahémé) and Ouémé (Lake Nokoué) rivers form around the deltas. Here, we are sometimes below sea level! Further north, a vast crystalline plateau extends from Kétou to Kandi. It then rises a series of isolated hills where the rock appears bare, around Savé, Dassa, Savalou... The sandstone plateau of Kandi, in Borgou, is barely higher than the coastal plain (on average 250 m) and slowly descends towards the valley of the Niger River. Finally, the Atacora range, in the northwest of the country, is composed of two parallel bulges. The cliffs on its western part slowly slope down towards the Pendjari. Attached to the southern chain of Atakora, between Bassila and Djougou, Sagbarao is the highest point of Benin at 658 m!
