Dakar
Capital of Senegal: population, location, elevation, climate and landmarks.
Pointe des Almadies - Senegal: Jeff Attaway, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
Overview
Dakar is the capital of Senegal. About 2.6 million people live in the city proper, making it the 1st largest city of Senegal in our atlas.
It lies at 14.69° N, 17.44° W, about 12 m (39 ft) above sea level, and keeps time on the Africa/Dakar time zone. It sits inside the tropics.
Location
Red dot: Dakar. Green dots: other major cities of Senegal. Map data: Natural Earth.
Climate
Dakar has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh). The warmest month is usually Oct, with average highs near 29°C (84°F); the coolest nights come in Feb at about 19°C (66°F). Around 555 mm (22 in) of rain and snow falls in a typical year, most of it in Aug.
Bars: average daily high and low (°C) for each month; blue columns and figures: average precipitation (mm). Gridded 2001-2025 averages from NASA POWER, so mountain and coastal spots can differ from local station records.
Landmarks and places to see
Popular sights within a few kilometres of the city centre, ranked by how widely they are documented on Wikipedia.
What to eat in SenegalNational dishes, street food, desserts and drinks on Intercontinental Chef.Nearby major cities
- Pikine · 10 km
- Guédiawaye · 10 km
- Rufisque · 18 km
- Thiès · 57 km
- Mbour · 60 km
- Kaolack · 159 km
- Touba · 169 km
- Saint-Louis · 179 km
- Population, coordinates, elevation, time zone: GeoNames 2253354 (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikidata Q3718 (CC0)
- Climate: NASA POWER 2001-2025 climatology
Text written by Geographical Effect from these sources.
- Pointe des Almadies - Senegal: Jeff Attaway, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Île de Gorée vue de la chaloupe 15: Fawaz.tairou, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- DakarMusée: Ji-Elle, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
- Musée des civilisations noires 2022: PMO Barbados, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
- SenegaleseWrestling: KaBa (KaaBaa), CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Dakar-Collines des Mamelles: Dorothy Voorhees, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- GoréeMuséeHistorique2: Ji-Elle, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
- HannParc10: Ji-Elle, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
