Grand Bassam

Grand Bassam occupied the meeting of the Comoé River, the lagoon and the Atlantic, where reaching sheltered water required crossing a surf-beaten bar. Ivory and enslaved people were among the commodities sought by foreign traders along this coast. A French trading factory operated at Grand Bassam from 1700 to 1707, a brief venture that did not establish enduring colonial occupation. The neighbouring Assinie coast also saw a short-lived French settlement in these years, as European merchants sought access to the trade of the lagoon country.

The later city of Abidjan lies here.