What type of architecture did ancient Mali have?
Architecture focused mostly on mosques and royal palaces. Buildings adapted to the local environment and used available materials. Constructions were mostly made out of mud bricks, which were dried in the sun and used for building the interior and exterior walls.
What is the significance of Djenne?
Inhabited since 250 B.C., Djenné became a market centre and an important link in the trans-Saharan gold trade. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it was one of the centres for the propagation of Islam.
Who was the architect of the Great Mosque of Djenne?
Ismaila Traoré
The architect, Ismaila Traoré, the city’s chief mason and a Muslim, used traditional materials, including the palm-trunk inserts that bristle from the facade.
What was Songhai architecture?
Similar to the architecture of surrounding states, the Songhai kingdom’s mosques and buildings were made of mud bricks. Beams at intervals on the side of the mosques were used to create scaffolding for regular maintenance of the mosque.
What material is the Djenne mosque constructed out of?
Like hundreds of other buildings in Djenne, the Great Mosque is made of mud. It was built in 1907, but the town’s mud architecture dates back to at least the 14th century. To create the buildings, masons pack mud and straw into bricks, allow them to dry in the sun, and stack them to form walls.
Why was the Great Mosque of Djenne destroyed?
By the 19th century, however, political and ideological conflicts within the Inland Delta caused the abandonment of the old mosque, which fell into ruin, in favor of a more modest mosque identified with the fundamentalist Islamic warrior-king Cheikou Amadou and his influence over the town (built 1835).
Does the Djenne river flow through Mali?
The history of Djenné is closely linked with that of Timbuktu. Between the 15th and 17th centuries much of the trans-Saharan trade in goods such as salt, gold, and slaves that moved in and out of Timbuktu passed through Djenné….
| Djenné | |
|---|---|
| Country | Mali |
| Region | Mopti Region |
| Cercle | Djenné Cercle |
| Area |
Who built the Mosque in Mali?
The first iteration of the Mosque of Djenné was built by the first Djenné king to convert to Islam, Mansa Musa, in the 13th century. During this time period, Mali was internationally recognized as a powerful country and carried the reputation as the land of gold.