Current Time in Thiès, Senegal

Thiès stands on a low plateau in western Senegal, about seventy kilometres east of the capital Dakar and a similar distance from the Atlantic coast at Popenguine. The setting is dry savannah dotted with baobabs and mango trees, and the slight elevation gives the town air that is noticeably fresher than the humid coast. Broad avenues lined with flame trees run out from the centre, a legacy of colonial planning.

With a population of well over three hundred thousand, Thiès is among the largest cities in Senegal and the capital of its own region. Its significance has always been tied to communications and industry. The town grew into the country's railway capital, home to the great workshops of the Dakar to Bamako line, and it remains an important centre for phosphate mining, groundnut processing and cement production, with major quarries and mines in the surrounding countryside.

A settlement existed here long before the French arrived, in a region shaped by the Serer and Wolof kingdoms of Cayor and Baol. French forces built a fort in 1864, and the town expanded rapidly once the railway from Dakar to Saint-Louis reached it in the 1880s. Thiès became the junction where the northern and eastern lines met, and generations of railway workers gave the place a strong labour tradition. The great railway strike of 1947 and 1948, which spread along the whole Dakar–Niger line, was centred here and became the subject of the celebrated novel by Ousmane Sembène that made the town known across the French-speaking world.

The best known attraction is the Manufactures Sénégalaises des Arts Décoratifs, a tapestry workshop founded in the 1960s with the encouragement of President Léopold Sédar Senghor. Its weavers turn designs by Senegalese artists into large woollen tapestries that hang in public buildings and embassies around the world, and the gallery is open to visitors. The old French fort now houses a regional museum, and the cathedral of Saint Anne, the grand mosque and the lively central market complete the list of landmarks.

Everyday life is animated by wrestling, the national sport, which draws huge crowds, and by mbalax music heard from every taxi. The region is a centre of the Sufi brotherhoods, and pilgrims pass through on their way to Touba and Tivaouane. Nearby lie the pink waters of Lac Retba, the bird reserve at the Somone lagoon and the beaches of the Petite Côte.

Transport is a strength. A toll motorway links Thiès to Dakar in under an hour, the country's main international airport at Diass lies between the two, and roads radiate towards Saint-Louis, Touba and the interior. The Université Iba Der Thiam, established in 2007, has grown quickly and given the town a substantial student population, alongside long-standing technical and railway training schools.

Thiès offers a relaxed, workmanlike alternative to Dakar, with genuine craft traditions and easy access to much of western Senegal.