Page 83 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

E m p i r E s o f m E d i E v a l w E s t a f r i c a

American southwest). This part of the ruin comes the closest to looking
something like the king’s town described by al-Bakri.
Short Roof Beams In the central neighborhoods of the town, the houses were built
The buildings of Kumbi close together with narrow streets. There were also open spaces with
Saleh have a special large sunken areas that were created when earth was dug out to make
architectural feature that mud bricks for construction. These low areas filled up during the rainy
is not seen in parts of
the world where there season. Although the water was not good to drink, it was convenient for
are tall trees. In medieval watering livestock and market gardens, and for doing laundry. After the
times in the Sahel region, rainy season, these temporary ponds gradually dried up.
the acacia trees used Maps made by archaeologists show one main avenue running from
for roof beams were not east to west through the center of Kumbi Saleh. On both sides of the
long enough or sturdy
enough to go across avenue were open spaces, probably for market stalls that would have
wide spaces. To build a been busy with regional trade when Ghana was at its most prosperous.
roof with short beams, At its widest point, the avenue spanned 39 feet. This was at the cen-
wide stone pillars were ter of the southern part of the town, in front of what appears to have been
built up from the ground the main mosque. The archaeologists found that the mosque itself was
and spaced about eight about 150 feet from west to east, and about 75 feet from north to south.
to 12 feet apart. Then
the acacia logs were laid The western half of the mosque appears to have been an open
from the tops of the walls paved courtyard, which is the usual design of mosques in the Sahel and
to the pillars, and the Western Sudan. At Friday prayers, when the building filled up with
upper floor could be laid worshippers, the courtyard would handle the people who could not
on these. fit inside. Unfortunately, there is no way to know if this is actually the
This kind of archi- mosque al-Bakri described as the one built for Muslims who visited the
tecture is found in all
the ruined cities of the king’s court. In fact, archaeologists cannot even be certain that Kumbi
region, including Kumbi Saleh is the town he described.
Saleh, Awdaghust Kumbi Saleh had at least two large cemeteries. Archaeologists have
(now called Tegdaoust), used them to estimate the city’s population. They think the town had
Walata (a great trading 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. There were 53 stones in the cemeteries
city), Tidjikja (where that were inscribed with verses from the Quran in Arabic, and 24 other
copper was mined in the
Sahara), and others that stones inscribed with ornamental decorations.
flourished during the When the archaeologists excavated in the cemeteries, they found
Ghana Empire. iron objects including knives, spearheads, nails, farming tools, and a
pair of scissors. They also discovered some tiny glass weights of the
type used for weighing gold. There were many fragments of pottery
as well, including some that came from the Mediterranean coast.
All of this archaeological evidence suggests that Kumbi Saleh was
once a prosperous commercial center. But it does not prove it is the
“Kumbi” mentioned in Soninke oral tradition or the town described
by al-Bakri.

2