Djenné, capital of the Circle of the same name, located 130 km southwest of the regional capital Mopti and about 570 km northeast of the national capital Bamako, is one of the oldest cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Inhabited since 250 BC, the site of Djenné developed into a market and an important city for the trans-Saharan gold trade. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the city was a center for the spread of Islam. Characterized by the intensive and remarkable use of land, especially in its architecture, the city is famous for its mosque, its civil buildings, its monumental houses with carefully composed facades, and its urban layout. Its traditional dwellings, adapted to seasonal flooding, are built on small hills, with the annual flooding of the Niger River and its tributaries being an essential natural phenomenon, both in the Djenné region and throughout the interior of the delta.