The first mosque at Djenné was built around the 13th century. The present building was rebuilt in 1906 and 1907, during French colonial rule, using forced labor. Ismaila Traoré, head of Djenné's guild of masons, was the architect. The style is Sudano-Sahelian, and the article calls it the largest adobe brick building in the world.
The mosque stands on a platform about 246 feet (75 m) square, raised about 10 feet (3 m) above the market. The prayer hall measures about 85 by 164 feet (26 by 50 m), with roughly ninety pillars. Three towers rise on the qibla wall, the central one about 52 feet (16 m) high. Bundles of palm sticks, called toron, project about 2 feet (60 cm) from the walls and serve as built-in scaffolding.
Each year the community repairs the mosque in a festival, applying new plaster. UNESCO listed it in 1988 with the Old Towns of Djenné.
Comments