Why it looks like this

The colonial town was founded on Tombo Island, at the tip of the Kaloum peninsula; a causeway joined it to the mainland, and Guinea's capital has been growing backwards up that narrow neck of land ever since.

The shape is extreme: bounded by the Atlantic on both sides, Conakry stretches out like a finger, and a handful of long roads carry everything, with short streets running off to the water. The airport, once far outside town, now sits surrounded by city.