The Tuareg crossroads of the Sahara — a mud-brick sultanate and 27-metre minaret
Agadez is the ancient caravan capital of the central Sahara, a UNESCO-listed city of mud-brick minarets and labyrinthine alleys where Tuareg nomads still arrive from the desert on camels to trade silver jewellery and indigo cloth in the weekly market. The city grew rich on the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade from the 14th century; its famous mud-brick mosque — with a 27-metre minaret, the tallest in sub-Saharan Africa — stands at the centre of a walled medina that has changed little since the 15th century. Agadez is also the traditional southern gateway to the Air Mountains, where ancient r…
Agadez was founded in the 11th century and reached its peak as the capital of the Sultanate of Agadez in the 15th–16th centuries, when it was among the largest cities in sub-Saharan Africa with over 30,000 inhabitants. Merchants from North Africa, the Sahel, and sub-Saharan Africa converged here to trade gold, salt, slaves, and goods along the trans-Saharan routes. The city was sacked by Moroccan troops in 1591 and never fully recovered its former size, but its UNESCO-listed old city preserves a near-intact example of Sudano-Sahelian architecture — earthen buildings that require constant re-p…