Kayes — City of Mali
Kayes, capital of the region of the same name, lies roughly 420 km northwest of Bamako, on the historic rail and road axis toward Senegal.
**Kayes** is a city in western Mali, roughly **420 km northwest of Bamako**, known as one of the hottest places in the country.
## A regional capital near the Senegalese border
Kayes is the capital of the **Kayes region**, which had about **1,815,258 residents in 2023** — Mali's most populous region after Bamako and Koulikoro. The city itself had **127,368 residents at the 2009 census**. Kayes sits not far from the border with Senegal, on the Senegal River, which long made it a strategic crossing point between inland Mali and the Atlantic coast.
## A historic rail link to Bamako
Kayes holds a special place in the history of Malian transportation: it was one of the anchor points of the **Dakar-Niger railway**, built during the colonial period, which linked Senegal to Mali by way of Kayes and then Bamako. This infrastructure shaped economic exchange between the Kayes region and the capital for decades.
## A region shaped by emigration
The Kayes region is historically one of Mali's main sources of emigration, with a sizable diaspora in France and other countries. Remittances from that diaspora play a significant economic role in the region, distinct from Bamako's economy, which leans more toward administration and services.
Sources: [Wikipedia — Kayes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayes), [Wikipedia — Kayes Region](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayes_Region)