Togo

Togo is one of Africa's smallest countries but it packs an extraordinary amount into its narrow strip of land. Just 57 kilometers wide at the coast and stretching 550 kilometers north to the Sahel, this slender nation manages to fit in palm-fringed beaches, misty mountain plateaus, dense forests, and dry savanna grasslands all within a country smaller than West Virginia.

What makes Togo truly unique is its spiritual culture. This is the heartland of West African voodoo, and the Akodessewa Fetish Market in Lomé is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world - a place where traditional healers sell everything from dried chameleons to powdered herbs for spiritual remedies. Togo's cultural mosaic of over 40 ethnic groups means traditions are alive and varied. The Batammariba people in the north build extraordinary two-story earthen tower houses called tata somba that earned UNESCO World Heritage status, and the Ewe people along the coast maintain drumming and weaving traditions that stretch back centuries.