Fort Prinzenstein is a fort located at Keta

Keta

Keta is a city in Volta Region, Ghana. It was an important trading post between the 14th and late 20th century via a port and fort built by the Dutch in 1784. Parts of the city were devastated by sea erosion between the 1960s and 1980s....

, Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

 which was used in the slave trade. Many such forts were built in Africa, but Prinzenstein is one of the few that lie east of the Volta River

Volta River

The Volta is a river in western Africa that drains into the Gulf of Guinea. It has three main tributaries—the Black Volta, White Volta and Red Volta...

. It was initially built by Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 traders in 1784 for defensive purposes in a war against the Anlo Ewe

Anlo Ewe

The Ewe people are an African ethnic group of about 6 million people, inhabiting the southeastern part of Ghana from the Eastern shore of the Volta River to the border of Ghana and Togo known as the Volta Region; meanwhile, a majority of Ewe are also located in the entire southern half of Togo. ...

 and to keep the area safe from other colonial powers. The fort was used as a dungeon for slaves awaiting transportation to the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

. In 1850 the fort, along with the rest of the Danish Gold Coast

Danish Gold Coast

The Danish Gold Coast was a part of the Gold Coast , which is on the West African Gulf of Guinea...

 was sold to Britain

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

. The fort was used as a prison for a period before it was partially destroyed by the sea in 1980. The remains of the fort are now visited by tourists.