Experience the best of N'Djamena

The city was called Fort-Lamy under French rule and took its present name in 1973. Its streets are wide and sandy, lined with low buildings and shade trees, and the markets are busy with traders from across the country and the region.

The large King Faisal Mosque is one of the city's best-known buildings, and a national museum holds archaeological and cultural collections. The Chari runs wide in the rains and shrinks to pools in the dry season. Lake Chad, which the river feeds, lies to the north-west, and its shores have shrunk in recent decades.

Chadian food uses millet, sorghum and fish from the rivers. Boule, a stiff porridge of millet or sorghum, is eaten with a sauce, and bissap, a cold red drink made from hibiscus, is served everywhere. The months from November to February are cooler with dusty winds, March to May are the hottest, and the rains come from June to October.