Glēxwé

Glēxwé, known to European traders as Ouidah or Whydah, was a great commercial centre of the Slave Coast. Though commonly called a port, the town stood inland beyond a coastal lagoon. Under the kings of Hueda, goods and enslaved people passed through it between the shore and the royal capital at Savi. Traders from several European nations established posts here, but their commerce depended on the authority of African rulers.

In 1727 King Agaja of Dahomey conquered Hueda. Ouidah became the kingdom's principal outlet to European traders, and business that had once been conducted at Savi was increasingly concentrated in the town. Its merchants supplied captives taken in Dahomean campaigns or purchased from traders inland, and ships carried them across the Atlantic, notably to Brazil. European forts remained amid a largely African town, whose prosperity was inseparable from the violence of the slave trade.

The later city of Lokossa lies nearby.