It all started with this photo. Interesting view. At first you don’t understand what it is, then you realize that this is some kind of village, and if you click on the picture and open it more, you will see some kind of castle or structure in the center. Then I got interested and decided to dig deeper into the bowels of the Internet. Well, when I met the name "Timbuktu" immediately came to mind "… In the distant bay of Timbuktu, Sarah Barabou has a house, She has a cow Mu. A skinny old marabou …" or whatever was right there;)
It was here that I decided to find out all the details and tell you.
The photo shows a village on the banks of the Niger River, country - Mali.
People on the territory of the Republic of Mali have already lived several millennia ago, that is, since the Neolithic. They left a lot of rock paintings with scenes of hunting, dancing, rituals, which gave contemporaries an idea of their occupations. It is known that these were people of the Negroid race and that from the 3rd millennium BC they began to engage in agriculture. As well as everywhere, where ancient people began to engage in agriculture, deserts soon appeared. This is due to the fact that the thin fertile layer, which was constantly scratched by plows, deteriorated and destroyed. There was a destruction of the turf layer lying directly on the sands and, after a few thousand years, the blooming Sahara became a sandy desert, through which the winds drove back and forth mountains of sand. Today, the desert occupies about half of the territory of this impressive African state.
In the language of the Tuareg, inhabitants of the African Niger Delta, "tim" means a well. The well in the Sahara, one of the driest deserts in the world, is not only a place where you can get water from the earth, it is life. According to legend, an old woman named Buktu lived in the bend of Niger in ancient times. The woman was distinguished by rare hospitality, so Arab traders leading caravans to the north of the continent gladly took a rest at her well. Over time, a settlement grew here, immortalizing Buktu and its well - the legendary ancient city of Timbuktu. The city was founded by the Tuaregs about a thousand years ago and experienced a heyday, conquest by alien tribes, decline and still vegetation.
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The heyday of Timbuktu began with the conquest of the upper reaches of the Niger by the people of Malinke (Mandingo). At the well, Muslim Berbers, black slaves and Arab traders settled for themselves permanent residence, each settling in their own part of the city. Due to its convenient geographic location, Timbuktu quickly became a developed trade center. Gold dust, ivory, leather, cola nuts, slaves and other goods were brought here to be shipped north through Sudan. In the southern direction, the city was supplied with salt, silk fabrics and other items of oriental luxury.
The period of greatest prosperity of Timbuktu is associated with the name of the ruler of Mali (mansa) of the first third of the 14th century by the name of Moussa. Returning to 1325. from Hajj to Mecca, Mansa decided to stay in the city for a long time. By his order, the royal palace that has not survived to this day was built here, as well as magnificent mosques. It was then that one of the attractions of Timbuktu was built - the Jingereber Mosque.
The Republic of Mali is located in the center of West Africa and is landlocked. By area (1.24 million sq. Km) - the second (after Niger) state in West Africa.
Mali is a land of deserts and savannas with a flat relief. On most of the surface, plains with average heights of 200-300 m. Uplands and mountain ranges (Manlingo, Hombori, Bandiagara, Adrar-Ifhoras) occupy less than 10% of the area. To the east of the city of Mopti, the Hombori Mountains rise with the highest point of the country - the Hombori-Tondo Peak (1155 m).
Severe droughts 1969-1973, 1982-1984 hit the semi-deserts and savannas of West Africa. The western part of Mali is occupied by the river basin. Senegal, flowing in a narrow valley among the high banks. Here is the city of Kayes - the hottest on Earth. The country's main river, the mighty Niger (one of the largest in Africa), crosses Mali for 1,600 km: it begins in Guinea and flows into the Atlantic Ocean in Niger. Without Niger, it is difficult to imagine the life of this arid country: its waters are used for irrigation, transport and fishing. The water level in the Niger during floods rises by 5-9 m, and in the middle course, where the river branches into many branches and channels, floods from 4 to 10 million hectares.
On the territory of Mali, powerful empires that succeeded each other developed and flourished: Ghana (4-13 centuries), Mali (13-15 centuries), Songhai, or Gao (15-16 centuries). The largest was the Mali empire, spanning from the Atlantic Ocean to Central Niger and from the rainforests to the Sahara. The heyday and rise of cities (Gao, Jenne and Timbuktu) date back to the 14th century. At the same time, Timbuktu became the center of Islam (after the Hajj to Mecca and Medina of the great ruler, Mansa Musa). The wealth of empires was based on the country's location at the crossroads of African trade routes. Camel caravans with salt, gold, ivory and slaves went through the Sahara to North Africa. However, all empires collapsed due to the invasion of neighboring peoples and their own civil strife. Songhai was finally defeated in the 16th century. Moroccans.
In the 17-18 centuries. on the territory of Mali there were already several small states, the largest of which was the Timbuktu empire. The colonial expansion of France into the interior regions of West Africa began at the end. 19th century Fort Kaye was founded in 1880, Fort Bamako was founded in 1883, and in 1895 Mali became a colony called French Sudan with its center in Kaye (since 1920 - in Bamako), the name of which, like borders, repeatedly changed. In 1958, the colony became an autonomous Sudanese Republic within the French Community. In 1959, the Federation of Mali was formed, which included only the Sudanese Republic and Senegal, but already in 1960 it disintegrated, and on September 22 (national holiday), 1960, the independence of the Sudanese Republic was declared, which has since been called the Republic of Mali. The years of independence were a period of military coups and one-party rule. Finally,in accordance with the new constitution of 1992, multiparty elections were held.
The head of state is the president, who is elected for a 5-year term, has supreme executive power and appoints the prime minister. The legislature is a unicameral National Assembly. The country is administratively divided into 8 regions.
Population - 11.6 million people, mainly people of the Negroid type: Bombara (33%), Senufo and Dogon (15%), Fulbe (11%), Soninke (9%), Malinka (7%), Songhai (5 %), dinula and others, as well as Tuaregs, Moors and Arabs of Western Sahara (5%). The official language is French. 90% of Malians are Muslims, 1% are Christians, 9% are animists (adhere to traditional cults). The population is growing rapidly: 47% are under the age of 14. Life expectancy is 45 years; 64% of the population lives below the poverty line. 26% are urbanites.
Mali's population is growing rapidly despite high death rates, poor medicine and living conditions.
Mali is among the least developed countries in Africa. The gross domestic product in 2002 was $ 9.8 billion, or $ 900 per capita. Agriculture accounts for 45% of GDP, industry - 17%. The bowels of the country are rich in minerals. Gold, diamonds, phosphorites, limestone are mined. Salt has long been mined in Taudennia in the Sahara, from where it is delivered by camel to Timbuktu. The deposits of bauxite, iron ore, copper, manganese and uranium are still not exploited. There are reserves of platinum and polymetallic ores. Natural conditions are favorable for agriculture, where 80% of the active population works. Mali is one of the largest pastoralist countries in West Africa, livestock is its main wealth. In the Sahara, during the wet season, there appear Tuareg and Arabs herders who roam with herds of camels and horses over a vast territory;in the Sahel, the Tuaregs and Fulba also breed sheep and goats.
The majority of the population is subsistence farming. Communal land use prevails. Commercial crops are limited to cotton (the 2nd largest production and export in Africa after Egypt) and peanuts. Mali provides itself with grain and exports the surplus to neighboring countries in good years. They grow millet (called the "camel of the plant kingdom"), sorghum, corn, rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, fruits (pineapples, mango, papaya, citrus), vegetables; Shea nuts are collected, and fish are caught in the lower reaches of the Niger. Crafts play a greater role than industry: wood carving (ritual masks and figurines of people and animals, ebony souvenirs), ivory, gold, leather, animal skins, straw, ceramics with colored geometric patterns; jewelry made of gold, silver, copper; woolen carpets and blankets with national patterns;fabrics (national dress - bubu in the form of a hoodie).
Industry (mostly small enterprises): processing of agricultural raw materials, production of fabrics, shoes, matches, cigarettes, cement, agricultural implements, assembly of bicycles, radios, motors. Export - cotton, peanuts, livestock and livestock products, textiles, fish, gold; imports - fuel, machinery and equipment, food. The main transport is road. The only railway is connected with the ocean coast of Mali, which runs from the port of Kulikoro (in Niger) to the seaport of Dakar (in Senegal).
Tourism is poorly developed. The main attractions of the country: Bamako and its environs (rock paintings of the Neolithic era); medieval cities (Gao, Timbuktu, Niono, Mopti, Segu, Jenne) located along the Niger.
The capital (since 1960) is the city of Bamako ("the river of the caimans"), stretching for 15 km along the Niger. Population - 1.4 million people. (together with the suburbs). Founded in the 15th century. In 1882 - a stronghold of French colonization on the river. Niger; from 1908 - the seat of the colonial administration of Upper Senegal and Niger; in 1920-1958 - the administrative center of French Sudan. The only large city, as well as the most important commercial, industrial, financial and transport center of the country. Port on Niger, international airport (Seine). The city has a regular rectangular layout: in the center is the main square, to which the main avenues converge. Along the river are villas, banks, shops and public buildings: the Great Mosque, the Cathedral of Jeanne d'Arc (19th century), the House of Crafts, the Central Market, the Grand Hotel, the School of Public Works (1948-1953), the National Assembly. In the northern part of Bamako,on the Kuluba hill, there are the presidential palace, the building of the Institute of Humanities, a botanical garden, a zoo, a mosque of the 14th century, two museums: local history and national (archeology, wooden sculpture and masks).
The mosque, like most of the old buildings in the city, is built in the so-called "Sudanese style". This architecture is characterized by buildings made of mud bricks or stones with mud. For the Sudanese style, the distinctive features are pilasters, dismembering the facades of buildings, towers and minarets conical, or in the form of a truncated pyramid, the main visual difference is the beams of the floors sticking out. Outside, such a structure is very similar to a sand cake studded with matches along the outer planes.
The Jingereber Mosque is a quadrangle in its plan. It has a flat roof and is decorated with adobe columns. A low tapering minaret is equipped with clay turrets on top. The top of the minaret was badly damaged by time and bad weather. The corners of the building contain numerous towers in the form of sugar heads, made of the same clay. An Arab cemetery occupies a large place in the courtyard of the mosque.
In the 15th century Timbuktu became a prominent center of trade for the continent. The main commodities are salt and gold flowing towards each other. The thriving city has opened a university consisting of 180 madrassas. In its best years, it accommodated up to 2,000 students. The city was filled with Arab scholars and scribes. Timbuktu was the most famous educational center of the Muslim West Africa. Local scholars have gained undeniable authority in rhetoric, jurisprudence, interpretation of the Koran and medicine. In addition, they have amassed an extensive library. Remnants of the former luxury are still kept in the city, which numbers, in addition to state, more than 60 private libraries and book collections. Ancient Greek manuscripts can be found here today.
One of the oldest madrasahs in the city was located at the Sankor mosque, whose squat pyramidal minaret still stands out against the city-wide background, in the north-eastern part of the settlement.
The Jenne Mosque is the main attraction of the city of Jenne and, perhaps, of the entire African state of Mali. The peculiarity of this mosque is that it was built entirely of clay. The first mosque appeared here in the 13th century, but in the 19th century it was destroyed. The mosque that can be seen in Jenna today was only rebuilt in 1907.
Palm tree sticks protruding from the building can help reduce negative climatic effects, including sudden changes in day and night temperatures, tropical rainfall and high humidity. Every year in this area of Mali, the Niger River floods, in this regard, the Mosque, built on a hill, turns into a clay fortress during the new days. Only Muslims are allowed to enter the Mosque. There is a special courtyard inside the building where Muslims can pray in the open air. Most architects consider the Jenna Mosque to be the main creation of the Sudanese-Sahelian style of architecture.
Residential buildings of the 15th and 16th centuries are characterized by narrow cornices and friezes made of sandstone or burnt tiles, horizontally dividing the facades. The oldest buildings sport traditional, expertly cut semicircular Moorish windows, modeled on Moroccan windows. The wooden doorway is adorned with intricate carvings painted in red and green. In front of the entrance to the residential part of the house there is a spacious lobby without windows. The walls are usually covered with white or light blue paint, the adobe floors are sprinkled with fresh sand, which is always abundant in the desert, unlike wood. The roofs of the houses, therefore, are lined with short poles.
These houses, mosques, and the wisdom of the centuries, set forth in ancient books, allowed UNESCO to declare Timbuktu an object of world heritage of mankind. It was in 1989, and in 2000. the government of the tiny but extremely prosperous European state of Luxembourg, together with a number of international funds, initiated a project to study the written heritage of the ancient city. Hundreds of thousands of manuscripts are still kept in Timbuktu and its environs, the oldest of which date back to the 12th century. Most of the treatises are written in Arabic or Fula by Islamic scholars and are devoted to astronomy, music and biology. There is also a great number of religious literature and books on morality and piety.
Even UNESCO's intervention does not make this land happier. The desert is gradually recapturing the territory that people once took from it. Research by Forbes magazine puts Timbuktu in the top ten cities that could disappear from the face of the earth by the end of this century. The townspeople, the Mali government are taking measures that can drive away the sands and make the land green again, in particular by planting trees. But these efforts are ineffective, some parts of the city are already half covered with sand …
Timbuktu city is located in Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, which is located in West Africa and is landlocked. But the lack of material wealth is made up for by its rich nature, culture and history. NBC News journalist Richard Engel recently traveled across the country heading for the lost golden city of Timbuktu. His journey began at sunrise on the outskirts of Bamako, the capital of Mali.
The architectural design of the mosque was created by the Andalusian poet Es-Sahel. The quarter where the building is located was originally inhabited by large salt traders. A distinctive feature of Sankore is its facade. Decorated forward protruding corner posts made of burnt tiles are decorated with protruding capitals. The entrance doors to the mosque, the northeastern part of which is increasingly covered with sand, are removed with ancient Moorish ornaments. Like the Jingereber Mosque, Sankore was completely rebuilt in the 16th century.
By 1492. Timbuktu became part of the Songhai Empire, which reached its peak under the ruler of Muhammad Askia. During his reign, a large number of scientists and sages from Mecca and Cairo gathered in the city, whom the enlightened monarch brought closer to his court, making them his advisers. Visitors from the west of the continent, from the Maghreb, exchanged slaves for Saharan salt in the slave markets of the city.
The period of prosperity ended for the city in 1591. Timbuktu was captured by the soldiers of the Moroccan sultan, armed with firearms unseen here. The flower of the local society - scientists and scribes were accused of treason and either exterminated or hijacked in Morocco. To protect against the raids of the Berber nomads, the sultan left an armed garrison in the city, but he often did not cope with his duties, and the Berbers captured and plundered the city. The city was gradually withering, the number of its inhabitants was slowly dwindling. This continued until 1893, when Timbuktu was captured by French colonialists.
Since the time of the great geographical discoveries in Europe, there have been rumors about a city in Africa, the cradle of gold and wisdom - Timbuktu. Incredibly, fabulously rich, post-medieval merchants called this city in their records. Most of the information Europeans got from the records of Leo Africanus, an Arab trader who lived in the first half of the 16th century. He solemnly called the city "the queen of the desert" and described it as a settlement whose streets are paved with gold bars, and the inhabitants are sages and scientists. Europeans, hungry for both gold and wisdom, tirelessly sought this coveted place. The French Geographical Society even announced a reward of 10,000 francs to the European who will be able to visit the African Eldorado. An essential caveat: to receive the prize, it was necessary to return from the trip alive. For a long time Muslim merchants kept the location of the city secret, so Europeans who accidentally wandered here were obliged to either convert to Islam and naturalize, or die.
The first attempt to find the city was officially made by the British officer Alexander Leng. His goal and tasks was not only to find Timbuktu, but also to subordinate him to the British crown. Arrogant and self-confident, like any white man in Africa of those years, in 1825. he embarks on an expedition dressed in the ceremonial uniform of His Majesty's Guards. A bigger mistake would probably only be to appear at the Meccan Kaaba in sparkling boots, a hat and with a gilded cross at the ready. As a result, the proud Briton nevertheless found the coveted city, but this was the last act in his life. Leng's mysterious disappearance only fueled European interest in the secret of Timbuktu.
In the footsteps of the Englishman, the Frenchman Rene Cayo sets out. Having learned the Arabic language and the customs of Muslims, he manages to enter the "fabulous" city. And what does the discoverer of the "queen of the desert" see? Miserable hovels, rubbish and dirt are all that remain in this place from the golden enlightened age. The great European dream of gaining wisdom and wealth has collapsed. That did not stop the practical French from seizing the city and declaring it subjects of the republic.
By the early 20th century, Timbuktu had turned into an endangered city, which it still is. In the early years of the 21st century, the population of Timbuktu did not even reach 40 thousand people. Only old houses remind of their former splendor, which practically have not undergone changes since the heyday of the city.
This photo, taken in 2007, shows abandoned traditional Dogon settlements at the foot of a cliff in the distant Dogon country. About 700 years ago, the Dogon fled to the cliffs in central Mali to avoid converting to Islam. In their new homes, they hid from the new religion, and they can still be found in these cliffs.
The Dogon are an ethnic group of about 300,000 people who live in areas along the 200-kilometer Bandiagara cliff in southeast Mali. The Dogon are known for their voluminous masks and skillful wood carvings. Most Dogons are animistic, but a small group converted to Islam. In this photo, a woman carries water in front of an old mosque in the Dogon village of Ende.
The Dogon are known for their ritual mask dances. Each mask is unique. Some have bovine horns attached, others are 6 meters long and are worn on stilts. The dances are arranged on special occasions and always start to the sound of drums.
By the way, returning to the beginning of the post, this is who this is MARABU. African marabou, it feeds on carrion …