West Africa's trans-Saharan trade empires: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai

Powerful West African empires, including Ghana and Mali, grew wealthy during the medieval period by controlling trade routes across the Sahara Desert, especially the exchange of gold from the south for salt from the north. Mali's ruler Mansa Musa became famous for his enormous wealth after a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. The Songhai Empire continued this trans-Saharan trading tradition afterward, reaching its own height in the late 1400s and 1500s, on the threshold of the early modern era.

This explanation is AI-generated and can occasionally be wrong. 🚩 Report