Elmina is the first European trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea and claimed to be the oldest European building South of the Sahara. It was founded by Portugal in 1482, taken over by the Dutch in the 17th century and by Britain in the late 19th century.

Elmina Castle and other forts and castles along the Gold Coast protected important ports of the European-African Gold and Ivory trade and became later centres of the trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Elmina Castle, together with 17 other fortified trading-posts in Ghana is inscribed as “Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions in the UNESCO World Heritage List

The Zamani Project spatially documented Elmina Castle in 2006.

Similar sites:
Fort Saint Jago (Elmina, Ghana), Fort Saint Sebastian (Shama, Ghana), Cape Coast Castle (Cape Coast, Ghana), Fort Saint Anthony (Axim, Ghana),  Fort of São Sebastião (Mozambique Island, Mozambique), Castle of Good Hope (Cape Town, South Africa),  Fort d'Estress (Ile de Gorée), Bunce Island Fort (Bunce Island, Sierra Leone)