Djenné is one of the oldest known cities (3rd oldest continuously inhabited city) in sub-Saharan Africa and houses the most famous of the mud-brick mosques, the Great Mosque of Djenné - The world’s largest mud-brick building.

Djenné is situated in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali. It is situated on the Bani River and on floodlands between the Bani and Niger rivers, 220 miles (354 km) southwest of Timbuktu. The river provides both a natural defense and a fertile surrounding flood plain. The city becomes an island during the area’s seasonal flooding.

Mud Architecture

The walls of the Great Mosque are made of sun-baked earth bricks (called ferey) and the mortar is made from sand and earth. The walls are filled with large wooden logs that stick out of the building's façade made from bundles of rodier palm, the extrusions are known as 'toron'. They serve as both decoration and as a type of scaffolding for workers who are tasked with re-surfacing the mosque each year , as well as providing architectural support. Ceramic pipes are used to drain rainwater from the roof in a way that keeps the water from damaging the walls.

Aside from the Mosque all other buildings are made from a similar materials. A typical house in Djenné has two stories, a flat roof, a courtyard and very little windows. All houses are built with ferey and plastered with mud. The houses also contain toron to make the houses stronger. The buildings also us ceramic pipes are used to drain rainwater from the roof in a way that keeps the water from damaging the walls.

As a result of this architecture Djenné was granted World Heritage status.

Origin

Djenné-djenno ("old Djenné") was established between 300 - 201 BC. This settlement is located 2-3 km away from Djenné, the settlement appears to have been on a mound. During phase I (ca. 250 B.C - 50 A.D.), occupants of the site seem to have lived in temporary shelters made of grass or brush, to have smelted iron, eaten fish and some domesticated cattle and to have made pottery with sand temper of the type associated with desert peoples to the north. During Phase II (ca. 50-400 A.D.), the people of ancient Djenné grew rice and lived in permanent adobe homes, and the site increased in size. By 450 AD there is evidence suggesting the emergence of full-blown urbanism, with settlement thought to have expanded to at least 25 hectares (over 60 acres). The pottery associated with this settlement period is from small, finely-made vessels with thin walls.

Djenné is thought to have been founded at a nearby site around 800-1000 AD. Joining Djenné-djenno, Hambarkétolo, Kaniana and Tonomba in forming an extraordinary settlement clustering resulted from a clumping of population around a rare conjunction of highly desirable features of excellent rice-growing soils, levees (a natural embankment alongside a river, formed by sediment during times of flooding) for pasture in the flood season, deep basin for pasture in the dry season and access to both major river channels and the entire inland system of secondary and tertiary side-streams or tributary rivulet used for communication and trade.

Around this time new trade items appear, such as copper, thought to have been imported from sources many hundred kilometres away and gold from even more distance mines as there is none in the region.In the ninth century some noticeable changes occurred: tauf house foundations were replaced by cylindrical brick architecture, one of the earliest structures built using the new cylindrical brick technology was apparently the city wall is thought to have been 3.7 meters wide at its base and running almost two kilometers around the town. Djenné's sister city Timbuktu also thrived , gold from mines far to the south was transported overland to Djenné, then trans-shipped on broad-bottom canoes (pirogues) to Timbuktu, and thence by camel to markets in North Africa and Europe. There are also historical references to the extensive boat trade on the Niger river which involved massive amounts of cereals and dried fish shipped from Djenné to provision arid Timbuktu.

The climate grew increasingly dry from 1200 AD and by 1400 AD people moved to Djenné where opportunities were concentrated whilst the other settlements were deserted. Djenné is thought to have been deserted shortly after but was given live when it was garrisoned by the Songhai led by emperor Sonni ʿAlī.

Modern day Djenné has in the region of fifty Quranic schools in which students (talibés) study Arabic and the Quran under the tuition of a marabout. Many talibés come from destinations as far removed as Ghana or Nigeria to study in Djenné, which is still regarded as a centre for Islamic learning. Djenné has therefore over the centuries become an important depository for Arabic manuscripts, which have been copied and stored in the private homes of the ancient Djenné families, many of which have Quranic schools attached.

References https://anthropology.rice.edu/jenne-jeno-ancient-african-city https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/116/ https://anthropology.rice.edu/jenne-jeno-ancient-african-city https://www.fieldstudyoftheworld.com/living-heritage-earth-architecture-djenne/ https://www.reddit.com/r/muslimculture/comments/hz3df0/djenne_mali_aerial_view_of_the_city/