Sub-Saharan Trip

 The first place I went in Sub-Saharan Africa was Mauritania. This site was used during the 12^th to the 16^th century as trade routes. This site gave me a new understanding of how life was back then. It was so interesting to see the buildings in ruins. They aren’t like Mayan ruins; they looked like kind of like sand castles.  I learned this was a hot bed for Islam during this time period. By the time I toured through half of it I felt as if I could blow my nose and sand would come out, it was very dusty. It was  interesting to learn about the way the bought,sold, and traded in this 400 year time period.

  

I decided to get a little more adventurous and went to the Tomb of Askia in Mali. Built by Askia Mohamed, the emperor of Songhai around the 1495, this tomb almost liked like a porcupine. I’ll be honest I was kind of hoping for a legend about how when you enter to tomb you become cursed. But there were two problems, one: they don’t actually let you into the tomb, and two; I guess those tales are pretty much confined to Egyptian tombs. Still it was very interesting to learn about emperor Askia, and his work in Islam, which he made the official religion of the empire.