On the way back from Mopti the driver and I stopped at Djenne, site of the largest mud structure in the world, the Konboro Mosque. The first mosque was built in Djenne in the 13th century. Today's structure dates from 1907. The mosque is about 35 feet tall; its interior is about half the size of a football field.
The city itself was unpleasant. Once a week the large space in front of the mosque is filled with the market, but for my visit blowing litter filled the space. A guide and I walked through the city, stepping across puddles of stagnant water, to see the see a few homes of architectural merit and to visit Pama Sinitao, one of the most well-know bogolan makers. Her work (see this site's West Africa and Mali pages) is more creative and detailed than that of others.
In Djenne we picked up two passengers to Bamako. An artist from Amsterdam needed a ride to Bamako. She was heading home after spending two months in a Dogon village making sketches. The son of the village chief accompanied her.
We ate a quick lunch at the highway strip in Segou where the busses stop. The atmosphere was typically Malian . . . music, quiet conversations, everyone sharing crowded tables. Lunch was about fifty cents, about one tenth of what we had been paying at the hotels.
We arrived in Bamako before five o'clock, hoping to catch the Air Afrique office before it closed. The closing time must have been even earlier. After a bit of bargaining with a gentleman outside the doors, though, some money changed hands and my ticket was taken inside and I was confirmed on a flight leaving that night. Five hours later I was in the air on the way to Paris.
Djenne