Magnificent statue - njenne - Mali (No reserve price)

Djenné-Jeno. In baked-earth architecture of Mali

Djenné, capital town of the circle of the same name, located 130 km southwest of Mopti, the regional capital, and about 570 km northeast of Bamako, the national capital, is one of the oldest cities in sub-Saharan Africa. Inhabited since 250 BCE, the site of Djenné developed to become a market and an important city for trans-Saharan gold trade. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the city was a center for the diffusion of Islam. Characterized by an intensive and remarkable use of earth, particularly in its architecture, the city is famous for its mosque, its civil constructions, its monumental houses with façades carefully composed, and its urban fabric. Its traditional dwellings, adapted to seasonal flooding, are built on small mounds, the annual rise of the Niger and its tributaries being an essential natural phenomenon, both in the Djenné region and throughout the interior of the delta.