Banco

A West African and Sahelian term for earthen plaster and earthen construction, used principally in the literature on the architecture of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and parts of Mauritania (Oualata). The Mauritanian ksar of Oualata is plastered in banco mud and decorated with red-and-white bas-reliefs that distinguish it from the other three Mauritanian ksour. The term sits at the southern margin of the Saharan-Maghreb earthen tradition documented in this archive.