Researchers argue that while the houseowner may have sold small numbers of slaves (kept in the now reconstructed basement cells)[2] and kept a few domestic slaves, the actual point of departure was 300m away at a fort on the beach. The house has been restored since the 1970s. Despite the significance of Gorée Island, some historians have made claim that only 26,000 enslaved Africans were recorded having passed through the island, of the unknown number of slaves that were exported from Africa.[2] Ndiaye and supporters have submitted that there is evidence, the building itself, was originally built to hold a large numbers of slaves, and that as many as 15 million people passed through this particular Door of No Return.[5]