Kayes Region

Kayes Region is one of the regions of Mali and the first administrative area of the country, covering 63,210 square kilometres. Its capital is the town of Kayes. The area was historically part of the Ghana Empire and the Mali Empire. The region is bordered to the north by Mauritania, to the west by Senegal, to the south by Guinea and to the east by the regions of Kita and Nioro. The Baoulé, Bafing and Bakoy rivers meet at Bafoulabé to form the Sénégal River, and the Falls of Félou and Gouina, the Talari Gorges, Lake Magui and Lake Doro lie within the region, together with the Bafing and Boucle du Baoulé national parks. The largest cities are Kayes, Kita, Bafoulabé, Nioro du Sahel, Diéma, Yélimané, Diangounté, Sadiola and Kéniéba. The region is the cradle of the Kingdom of Khasso, founded at the beginning of the 19th century, and the Dakar-Niger railway inaugurated in 1904 made Kayes a crossroads city. It is the third most populated region of Mali, with 1,840,329 people in 2022.