Mali holds some of the oldest cities in West Africa. The Grand Mosque of Djenné, rebuilt in 1907 on much older foundations, is the largest mud-brick building on earth. The whole community replasters it every year, the same collective effort that raised it.

Mopti sits where the Niger and Bani rivers meet, a trading junction that still works much as it did 500 years ago. Pinasses loaded with grain and livestock move up and down the Niger, and the market at the port has barely changed.

The Dogon country runs along sandstone cliffs east of Mopti. For centuries the Dogon kept Islam at arm’s length by living in clifftop villages that were nearly impossible to reach, and many of those villages are still lived in today. Routes through Mali are arranged case by case.