Taoudenni salt mines and the azalai caravan
Minas de sal de Taoudenni y caravana azalai
- Date
- c. 1585-1600 · confidence medium
- Place
- Taoudenni, Timbuktu Region, Mali
- Credited to
- Peoples of the Malian Sahara (Tuareg, Arabs and Songhai)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
In the Malian Sahara, slabs of rock salt from a dried-up lake are cut in blocks and carried by camel caravan to Timbuktu. It replaced the Taghaza mines and fed the trade of salt for gold and grain.
Exploitation is attributed to c. 1585, when the Moroccans occupied Taghaza; the data are mostly traditional and the dates loose.
What it led to
- salt for the Sahel and inland West Africa
- survival of the azalai until the 21st century
- a remnant of trans-Saharan trade after Songhai