Gambia - Wassu Stone Circles Quarry Site

The quarry site is located on a laterite ridge to the east of the Wassu stone circles site. The ridge is covered with grass and other vegetation which obscures the rock outcrop from a distance but the quarries are easy to identify having been open-cast quarried for the stone. The most obvious form is a pillar-shaped quarry where the stone was removed and probably finished. Other shallow cuts and stepped platforms also indicate quarry activity but may also imply natural erosion features. Some partially dressed stones remain in situ but are fractured;which probably led to their abandonment. The site lies on the edge of the outcrop which accommodated the removal of the stone from its matrix. Another quarry lies to the ESE. The quarries appear to have been exploited in no systematic way just for ease of access to the raw material and transportation of the finished products.