Ancient capital of the Songhai Empire, at the Niger River bend where the Sahara meets the Sahel — the Tomb of Askia is one of Africa's great pyramids
Gao is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Sahel, at the great bend of the Niger River where the desert gives way to the river's green corridor. As the capital of the Songhai Empire in the 15th–16th centuries, Gao was one of the wealthiest cities in the medieval world — a centre of trans-Saharan gold and salt trade, Islamic scholarship, and imperial administration. The Tomb of Askia (UNESCO), a massive mudbrick pyramid built in 1495 by the emperor Askia Muhammad, remains the most important architectural monument in eastern Mali. The city has been significantly affected by t…
Gao's origins as a trading centre date to at least the 7th century CE, when Arab geographers noted it as a significant market at the Niger bend. It became the capital of the Songhai Kingdom by the 11th century and reached its imperial peak under Sunni Ali Ber (reigned 1464–1492) and Askia Muhammad (reigned 1493–1528), who expanded the empire from the Atlantic to Hausaland and made Gao and Timbuktu the twin capitals of one of the largest states in African history. The Moroccan army under Judar Pasha defeated the Songhai at the Battle of Tondibi in 1591, using firearms against cavalry, and the…