NIGER RIVER

The Niger River flows through Mali for more than 1500 kms, and reaches its northernmost point near Gao, in the middle of the Sahara desert. Here, the Askia dynasty built this tomb for the emperors of the Songhai empire. Musician Ali Farka Toure told me that the Askia dynasty originally came from what is now Iraq. The tomb dates from the 14th century.




One step further in the historical development of the building style, this mosque is still pretty solid, organically hewn from the earth. It is located in the remote river village of Sebi, the origin of the great Toure clan, and probably dates from around 1500.





The next step is this mosque in another riverside village, Oha. There are hesitant battlements appearing here, the structure is less earthbound. Oha is on the edge of Lac Debo, the huge lake in the inland Niger delta which fills up after the rains to become the second largest fresh water lake of West Africa.





This beautiful mosque with its smooth, flowing lines is located in Senousa, central Mali. It's another example of a stupendous structure in a tiny village, where generations have toiled to outdo the surrounding villages, and bring praise to Allah, with a bigger and better place of worship.





About a century ago, the Soudanese building style became more soaring. This pretty typical mosque at Sirimou has graceful minarets and battlements pointing faithful and sinners the way to heaven. In these villages, where no roads reach, and no tourists ever come, life has not changed much for hundreds of years.





The mosque of Kotaka is recent. Bricks have been used here, instead of the traditional banco (adobe), although the coating is still made of banco. This large mosque in a big village bristles with towers surrounding the main minaret. From its battlements, the views over the river (several miles wide at this point after the 1999 rains) and over the rice fields are stupendous.


If you want to know more about the traditional architecture of West Africa, click HERE.

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