Mali

The largest earthen building in the world and the preeminent landmark of Sudano-Sahelian mud-brick architecture, standing on the site of an original 13th-century mosque attributed by tradition to Djenné's first Muslim ruler, Koi Konboro. Rebuilt in 1906 to 1907 by Djenné's guild of master masons with three box-like minarets along its qibla wall, it is replastered every year by the entire city during the communal Crépissage festival.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Old Towns of Djenné, 1988), placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2016Place du Marché, Djenné, Mali (trong thành cổ Djenné, đồng bằng nội địa sông Niger và sông Bani)

Photo: Andy Gilham, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

The mother church of the Roman Catholic Church in the Republic of Mali and seat of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bamako, constructed between February 21, 1925 and 1936 by the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) under Bishops Emile Sauvant and Pierre-Louis Leclerc using dark local ferruginous sandstone in a Neo-Romanesque-Byzantine style with twin bell towers, visited by Pope John Paul II in January 1990 and celebrated as a beacon of interreligious harmony in West Africa.

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bamako (Primatial See of Mali) and Historic Architectural Monument of the Capital District of BamakoRue Mgr Sauvant, Koulouba-Centre Quarter, Commune III, Bamako, Republic of Mali

Photo: Upyernoz, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

The sacred totemic ancestor sanctuaries (Binu ginna) of the Dogon people distributed across the cliffside villages of the 150-kilometer Bandiagara Escarpment in central Mali (inscribed as a UNESCO mixed World Heritage Site in 1989), where hereditary Binu priests (Binu kedyu) tend earthen shrines sculpted with checkerboard ancestral niches, conical fertility pinnacles, and white millet-porridge libation streaks honoring the eight primordial Nommo ancestors.

UNESCO Mixed Cultural and Natural World Heritage Site (Cliff of Bandiagara: Land of the Dogon, inscribed 1989 under criteria v and vii, Ref. 516)Historic Dogon Villages of the Sanga Sector (Ogol, Banani, Ireli, Amani) along the Bandiagara Escarpment, Bandiagara Region, Republic of Mali

Photo: Dr. Ondřej Havelka (cestovatel), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The oldest and largest monumental Friday mosque in the fabled desert city of Timbuktu (UNESCO World Heritage Site, 1988), commissioned in 1327 CE by Mali Emperor Mansa Musa I upon returning from his legendary Mecca pilgrimage and designed by Andalusian scholar-architect Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, constructed of sun-dried banco earth bricks, alhor limestone, and projecting palm-wood toron beams with space for up to 12,000 worshippers.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Timbuktu, inscribed 1988 under criteria ii, iv, and v, Ref. 119) and Principal Collegiate Sanctuary of the Historic University of TimbuktuDjingareyber Quarter, Southwestern Old Town of Timbuktu, Tombouctou Region, Republic of Mali

Photo: Angeline A. van Achterberg, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The celebrated mosque and medieval university madrasah in the northeastern quarter of Timbuktu (UNESCO World Heritage Site, 1988), founded in 988 CE by a wealthy Muslim noblewoman and reconstructed between 1578 and 1582 by Grand Qadi al-Aqib with a central courtyard matching the exact cubit dimensions of the Kaaba in Mecca, famed across the Islamic world for educating up to 25,000 scholars and preserving hundreds of thousands of West African manuscripts.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Timbuktu, inscribed 1988 under criteria ii, iv, and v, Ref. 119) and Supreme Seat of Learning of the Historic University of TimbuktuSankore Quarter, Northeastern Old Town of Timbuktu, Tombouctou Region, Republic of Mali

Photo: Anne and David, Phạm vi công cộng, Wikimedia Commons