Sunday, January 20, 2008

Djenne - Grande Mosquee






Djenne is located on an island in the Bani River - even during the dry season we needed to ferry over (during a full-moon night) to reach it.

Founded around 800AD, this Sahel town is now most famous for the Grand Mosque you see here - a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Built of mud, for a week each year after the rainy season the entire town comes out to help rebuild and restore bits that have simply washed away.

The wood beams you see protruding are not merely decorative, for they help provide critical structure to the building.

Alas, as infidels we were not allowed inside...but we walked through the meandering streets of the old village surrounding it, and onto a rooftop opposite for some fantastic views.

1 comment:

  1. Dear Mr. Neil,
    How did you feel about not going into the mosque? If you did, did you wish you could tell me about all of the pretty things inside of it? I bet it was beautiful in there if you had gone in it. I wish I could have gone in it too. One day I am going to go to Mali and make a change for the mosque so that all of the people in Mali can go in to see it, even the people who don't believe in God. One day I'm going to go lots of places in the world, and I am especially going to go to Hawaii and Egypt. They are going to be great places. I like the pyramids and the hula stuff. I am especially going to see the Sphinx and where Dad lived and all of the volcanoes in Hawaii. We made a volcano here by putting vinegar and baking soda and food coloring mixed with water and it exploded. I like where they were sitting and one who was wearing purple was going up the stairs . . . I like the aqua outfit because aqua is my favorite color. And in one of the other pictures in this blog site that I'm commenting on, where there are three boys with black hair sitting together, if there were, why were you taking their picture and sneaking on them? Was it ok that you were taking their picture?
    Love,
    Charlotte

    ReplyDelete

Biography

An inveterate traveler, who has explored all seven continents, Neil centres his freelance writing today on travel.
Published work includes travel writing in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Buffalo News, Travel Scoop and The Wonderful World of Budget Travel. Featured destinations include: Toronto, Ontario; Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Qufu, China; Oaxaca, Mexico; Jersey, Channel Islands; Trans-Siberian Express.
Neil’s photography focuses on finding images of the worlds he visits that capture the essence of “place”. Whether photographing landscapes, archaeological sites or locals, the goal is to make a picture emotive of what brought one there.
Photography has been published in Camera Canada, Foto Flash, Minolta Mirror and travel publications, as well as displayed at gallery exhibits in Toronto.