Kejetia Market

From afar, the Kejetia Market looks like an alien mothership landed in the centre of Kumasi. Closer up, the rusting tin roofs of this huge market, often cited as the largest in West Africa, look like a circular shantytown. But once you take a breath and step down into its interior, it's infinitely disorienting but also throbbing with life and commerce.

Watch your step, often over unused railroad tracks, in the narrow alleyways selling everything from foodstuffs, second-hand shoes, clothes and plastic knick-knacks to kente cloth, glass beads, Ashanti sandals, batik and bracelets. You may also see fetish items, such as vulture heads, parrot wings and dried chameleons.