Mali

Why it sticks

1. 1

   Mansa Musa, 14th-century ruler of the Mali Empire, is often called the richest person in history; his 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca crashed gold prices in Cairo.

2. 2

   Timbuktu was a great centre of Islamic learning, and its manuscripts survive by the hundreds of thousands.

3. 3

   The Great Mosque of Djenné is the largest mud-brick building in the world.

4. 4

   The flag is a green-yellow-red vertical tricolour.

• Only small official trekker coverage around Timbuktu; most imagery is user photospheres.
• Mud-brick Sudano-Sahelian buildings with wooden beams sticking out of the walls.
• Signs in French; dry Sahel and desert landscape.