trans-saharan-trade

The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert, stretching across North Africa and covering about 9.2 million square kilometers of arid and hyper-arid land.

A powerful West African empire that dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th centuries from its capital of Gao.

A historic city in northern Mali renowned as a major center of Islamic learning, trade, and culture during the medieval and early modern periods.