Kankan

Kankan is a town in eastern Guinea on the Milo River, about 555 kilometers east of the capital Conakry, and the capital of both Kankan Prefecture and Kankan Region. Oral tradition credits its founding to Daouda Kaba in 1690, and by the 18th century it had grown into an important Islamic and trade center under the scholar Alfa Kaabine Kaba, with the French explorer Rene Caillie visiting in 1827 and recording a commercial town of 6,000 people and a railway to Conakry completed in 1914. Its population was 410,542 at the July 2025 census, making it Guinea's largest city by land area and second largest by population. Kankan was historically a trading center for kola nuts and is the birthplace of Solomana Kante, inventor of the N'Ko script, and of President Mamady Doumbouya.