Djenné

Djenné stands on an island in the inland delta of the Niger River in central Mali. The town is the historical southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade routes that fed Timbuktu, the Ghanaian gold trade, and the salt economy of the western Sudan. The Old Towns of Djenné — together with the nearby archaeological site of Djenné-Djeno, which traces continuous urban occupation back to the third century BCE — were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 1988.

The architectural signature of the town is the Sudano-Sahelian banco tradition: monolithic earthen construction in coursed mud, often with palm-rib reinforcement projecting from the wall surface, finished with a sculpted earthen plaster that is renewed annually in a community festival (crépissage) at the start of the dry season. The Great Mosque of Djenné, originally founded in the thirteenth century and rebuilt in 1907 in the same banco tradition, is widely cited as the largest earthen building in the world.

Djenné's heritage management has faced acute pressures since the 2012 Malian conflict, including displacement of population, disruption of the religious and craft economy that maintains the banco fabric, and security constraints on conservation access. UNESCO placed several Malian heritage sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger during this period; the institutional framework for sustained conservation work in the inland delta remains in significant flux.