Africa's Taj Mahal: Great Mosque of Djenne repaired

While women carried water from the river, men made mud to plaster the mosque. The Great Mosque of Djenne, which has been rebuilt twice since the 13th century and took its current form in 1907, is called the Taj Mahal of Africa.

Thousands of Malian Muslims, under the protection of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), carried buckets of mud to the historic mosque to plaster and repair the adobe walls of the historic structure. The number of tourists participating in the repair work of the mosque, which requires a new layer of mud before the rainy season begins in June, remained limited this year.

Djenne Cultural Director Moussa Moriba Diakite stated in a statement to the Associated Press (AP) that many people could not attend the annual event due to security issues. Diakite said, "Even though the tourism industry has disappeared, the maintenance of the mosque must be continued at all costs to protect the country's cultural heritage."

'POOR, RICH, EVERYONE IS HERE'

During the mosque's repair work, women brought water from the river while men made mud to plaster the mosque. Amadou Ampate Cisse, one of the local residents participating in the work, expressed, “Plastering the mosque is a symbol of peace. Poor, rich, everyone is here for this event.” Emphasizing that they will pass this tradition on from generation to generation, Cisse said, “We will pass this on to our children, and they will do the same.”

First built in the 13th century, the Great Mosque of Djenne was later demolished and rebuilt twice, taking its current form in 1907. The city of Djenne, which has a population of approximately 30 thousand, has been on UNESCO's World Heritage list since 1988 with its mud-brick Great Mosque and traditional houses.

UNESCO had placed the city on the list of endangered sites in 2016 due to terrorist attacks in the region.

AFRICA'S TAJ MAHAL

Located in the Djenne region in a remote corner of Mali, the mosque is important for all Muslims in Africa as the most significant work brought to the region by the old Mali Empire.

Djenne is located in the Mopti region, which borders the separatist Tuaregs north of Mali's capital, Bamako. Established in the flood basin of the Bani River, Djenne turns into a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides during the rainy season.

The first traces of Islam began to appear in the 13th century in the region, which is located on the trade route to Timbuktu. Thus, the mosque, built with materials unique to the region, also carries the characteristics of Maghreb architecture.

Located on the old pilgrimage route in West Africa, the mosque is an important center for West Africans as well as for the people of Djenne.

SAHELIAN-SUDANESE ARCHITECTURE

The Great Mosque of Djenne has conical and spiral minarets placed on square-like, four-cornered adobe columns made of cylindrical adobe bricks called "Banco" in the architectural style known as "Sahelian-Sudanese."

Hundreds of wooden beams mounted on the adobe walls serve as repair scaffolding during the rainy season. These wooden beams, which serve as scaffolding, stand out as the most important decorative element of these simple structures, which contain no decorative features or ornaments.

THE WORLD'S LARGEST ADOBE STRUCTURE

The Great Mosque of Djenne, the world's largest adobe structure, was built from high-quality adobe made from Djenne soil mixed with a traditional oil called Djenne Faray.

There are 99 columns supporting the mosque, and each of these columns bears one of the names of Allah mentioned in the Holy Quran. However, no one except the elders of the region knows which name belongs to which column.

For the ventilation of the adobe mosque, 114 chimneys made of baked earth called "Ladis" are used. The number of ventilation chimneys also represents each verse of the Holy Quran. While the cover of each chimney, adorned with motifs, is closed during the rainy season, it is opened to perform its function during the dry season, which makes up the majority of the year.