Travel Guide

Places To See

Djenné's Monday Mosque Market

This colourful market takes place in front of Djenné's fairytale mud mosque, the largest mud-built structure in the world. By mid- to late-morning, Djenné is awash with traders selling everything from cloth to calabashes, spices to spaghetti, pottery to pungent local foods and prize goats.

Dyingerey Ber Mosque

Of Timbuktu's three great mosques, Dyingerey Ber is the oldest, dating from the early 14th century. The interior is a forest of 100 sturdy pillars, and there are a series of interconnecting rooms with holes in the walls through which worshippers, unable to hear the imam, could look through into the main prayer hall to see when to pray.

You can go into this mosque, west of Place de l'Indépendance, but sometimes only with a guide.

Pre-Departure Information

When to go?

The very best time to visit Mali is between November and January, before the heat hits in March and after the wet humid season. Trips down the Niger are also a good bet in November as the river is usually high enough for passenger boats to get through. By December and January boat trips may be more of a hop from one sandbank to another if not cancelled altogether. November, though, is also the high tourist season so if you prefer to sacrifice a bit of comfort for peace and quiet, you could go in December for the crossing of the cattle at Diafarabé. Mali's most famous cultural event is the Festival in the Desert, a musical extravaganza of the country's best musicians amid the sand dunes near Timbuktu which takes place in early January. In fact anytime from October through to February is a reasonable time to go, but trying to get around Mali in the hot season from March to May is strictly for masochists.

Travel Visa Overview

Visas are required for all visitors. Visas are available at the border but it can take an age (and the odd bribe) to get one. Depending where you get your visa, the price can vary wildly.

Electricity

220V

50Hz

Electrical Plugs

European plug with two circular metal pins

Health Information

Malaria

Malaria precautions should be taken.

Weather Information

At the borders of the clenching grasp of the Sahara, the southern part of Mali is the most hospitable. The rainy season - when torrential downpours and thunderstorms are preceded by strong winds - runs from June to September with July and August the wettest months. It's hottest between April and June, when temperatures frequently exceed 40°C (104°F). September and October are also extremely hot and Timbuktu in particular can be unpleasant. From November through January the alize (a steady, mild northeasterly) wind blows cooler air, keeping daytime temperatures in the 30s (86-102°F) - Malians refer to this period as the cold season! From January to June, the hot and dusty harmattan (a dry, dusty wind) blows, irritating throats and, on some days, reducing visibility to a few hundred metres. December to March tends to have the best combination of heat and humidity with neither being too high - at least by Mali standards.

History and Culture

Pre-20th Centure History

Mali is a country old enough to have rock paintings that date back to a time when the Sahara was a blossoming paradise, but the first known empire in the region was the Empire of Ghana. This was destroyed in the 11th century by Muslim Berbers from Mauritania and Morocco, who objected to the lukewarm manner in which the empire embraced Islam. By the middle of the 13th century, however, Sundiata Keita, leader of the Mandinka people, had strategically converted the empire to Islam and taken out a monopoly on the gold and salt trade. Under the influence of several progressive Mansas (Lords), Djenné and Timbuktu became the commercial Shangri-las of West Africa, with several mosques and a couple of universities being built as part of the push to create a great and powerful empire.

But to the east the Songhaï had established their own city around Gao. They were powerful and well organised and, more to the point, had been busy creating a professional army and a civil service while the Mali empire had been building universities. When push came to shove, traders and students were no match for soldiers and bureaucrats, and the Songhaï Empire took over the Sahel. Their victory was short-lived, however, lasting a mere century before there was another bloody loss to the Moroccan Berbers. At the same time European ships were plying the coast of West Africa, thus circumventing the Saharan trade route and knocking the bottom out of the Sahel wealth. The city of Timbuktu was abandoned, addding to its out-of-the-way reputation. In 1883 Mali became a French colony and, although a few railways and irrigation systems were built, Mali was always considered the poor cousin of other West African colonies.

Modern History

In June 1960 Mali finally gained its independence and merged with Senegal to form a federation, but the honeymoon was short and turbulent and by August Senegal had seceded and Modibo Keita became the first president of the Mali Republic. Keita opted to play both sides of the political fence by retaining political and economic ties with France but relying heavily on Soviet military advice. In a fit of national pride Mali left the franc zone in 1962, established its own currency, and embarked on a series of disastrous socialist policies that sent the economy bust and caused a national tightening of the belt. These austere cost-cutting ventures proved to be highly unpopular and in 1968 Moussa Traoré took over the country in a bloodless coup.

Traoré ruled Mali from 1968 to 1991 but not always well and not always benevolently. Mali was a relatively peaceful republic in the 1970s and '80s, although there were several obligatory coup attempts and a well-publicised student strike in 1979. In 1991, however, all Traoré's sins came home to roost. His heavy-handed treatment of Tuareg rebels, his repeated refusals to consider political pluralism, and his open-fire policy toward strikers and rioters led Lt.Col Amadou Toumani Touré to take control of the country and appoint a civilian, Soumana Sacko, to head a transitional government. In 1992 multiparty elections were held and Alpha Konaré was invested as President. Konaré was reelected by a landslide in 1997, but could not run for a third term.

Recent History

Touré, who'd become a national hero for his abdication in favour of a democratic process following the coup he staged, came out of retirement to win the presidency in May 2002, although the result was stained somewhat by allegations of irregularities.

Though the former general is widely respected for his peace efforts and humanitarian work, there were signs of tensions within the political elite. The government resigned en masse without explanation October 2002, and its replacement - dubbed a 'government of national unity' - did likewise in April 2004.