Photos tagged as forts

The Door of No Return

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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The Corridor

Men were marched from the main dungeon below the chapel along a 200ft corridor which ran underneath the main sea-facing buttress of the castle to join the women at the Door of No Return. To ensure they kept moving and didn't stall, various checkpoint port-holes were installed so that guards could monitor them from the level of the inner quad above.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Slave grave

Whilst the governors and priests of the castle were buried in dignified graves inside the castle's inner quad, any slaves who died either from malnutrition, disease or in the condemned chambers were thrown onto these rocks for the gulls and fish.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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The main castle building

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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The outer sea-facing wall: Cape Coast Castle's main defence

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Water for the slaves

These underground water storage containers were the storage tanks where water was kept for the slaves. It's apparently pretty deep: 20m or so.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Inner quad of Cape Coast Castle

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Graves in the inner quad

The priest of the castle chapel, the wife of one of the governors and an ex-governor are all buried beneath the floor of the inner quad of the castle. The slaves who died were thrown on the rocks below the beach for the fish to feed on.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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The Castle Chapel

The main chapel of Cape Coast Castle was situated directly over the mens dungeon below. The plaque just visible to the left of the main dungeon entrance is to commemorate the visit of Barrack and Michelle Obama to the castle, approximately a week before this photograph was taken. Michelle Obama may have had ancestors who were traded through this castle.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts obama slaves
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The darkness

When the sun is not directly shining on the tiny inlets of air and light that supply the entire mens dungeon at Cape Coast Castle, the lack of light is abysmal and depressing.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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The main mens dungeon

This photograph gives the viewer a length-view of the mens dunegon below the castle. It consists of 3 main interlinked 'rooms' into which up to 1000 men were crammed at any one time. The line down the centre of the floor was the only toilet and sewerage system supplied. There was no space to lie down and most of the time the slaves had to sit or stand in their own excrement.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Hope springs eternal

A tribute to the hope that led many slaves who were filed through Cape Coast Castle to survive their arduous journey or give up their lives in an attempt to win back their freedom.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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One chamber-mens dungeon

One of the 3 chambers of the mens dungeon of Cape Coast Castle. The line down the floor was the sewerage system.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Archeology

The chalk marks on the wall indicate the level of compacted human excrement that had to be excavated from the main mens dungeon when it was reopened as a tourist site and monument.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Inside the dungeon

This photograph was taken without flash to give a sense of the darkness inside the main chamber of the mens dungeon at Cape Coast. The 3 inlets at the top of the wall are the only source of light and air.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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The entrance to the mens dungeon

Looking back towards the entrance gives an idea of the light coming through into the dungeon. When slaves were kept here, this light was blocked off too by a door.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Conditions in the main dungeon

With flash, we can see the conditions inside the main mens dungeon. The ground is very hard and slippery and the walls are completely bare. Nowhere to sit or lay down.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Descent into the dungeon

We followed our guide down into the main mens dungeon. The floor was very steep and incredibly slippery, worn smooth by the number of people who had walked in. It was very difficult to walk back out this entrance as there are no stairs.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Entrance to the mens dungeon, Cape Coast Castle

This is the main entrance to the mens dungeon at Cape Coast Castle.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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The entrance to the mens dungeon, Cape Coast Castle

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Cape Coast Castle--the corridor to the slave ships in the harbour

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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The main buttresses and defence cannons for Cape Coast Castle

Cape Coast Castle was a very desirable and strategic location for any European power seeking access to the slave trade from West Africa. As the main conduit of slaves traded from the Ashanti, that country which held Cape Coast had the best access to the lucrative trade. As a result, it often came under attack from rival countries who would lay siege to the castle from the sea in an attempt to take it.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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Check point

A porthole through which guards would keep an eye on the slaves in the corridor below being filed from the dungeon through to the Door of No Return where they would be rowed out to the awaiting ships.

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts slaves
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The entrance to Cape Coast Castle

• Date: 21 July 2009
• Photographer: Sarabi: gallery
• Location: Cape Coast, Ghana: gallery
• Tags: forts
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Entrace to Punakha Dzong

• Date: 5 July 2009
• Photographer: rsherry: gallery
• Location: Bhutan: gallery
• Tags: forts monasteries
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