PHOTO: Senegal River ferry at Bafoulabé
Araouane is located 269
kilometers due north of Timbuktu on the piste that leads to the
salt mines at Taoudenni. The French
established a military post
there in the 1920s to protect/inventory the salt caravans as they
headed south to Timbuktu.
| Bafoulabé is
located at the
junction of the Bakhoy and Bafing Rivers, two major tributaries
of the Senegal River, about 600 miles inland from the Atlantic
Coast in the modern country of Mali. [Map]
PHOTO: Senegal River ferry at Bafoulabé |
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| Bamako is the
capital of independent
Mali, and was the capital of the colony of French Soudan from
1904 to 1960. It is located on the Niger River near the rapids
that divide the Upper and Middle Niger Valleys. It is served by
an international airport, by a railroad from Dakar, and by road
from Côte d'Ivoire . Bamako is located in the
region of Banamba. [Map]
PHOTO: The Chamber of Commerce building in Bamako |  |
Bambuk is the region in
western Mali that is drained by the Upper Faléme River, a
tributary of the Senegal River. It is known as the site of gold
mines which supplied the trans-Saharan trade, and may have been
the area described by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th
century BCE.
| Bandiagara is a town
located 60
kilometers
east of Mopti, on the western edge of the Falaise de
Bandiagara.
The falaise (cliff) extends for nearly 100 kilometers and
overlooks a broad valley. In the past, the cliff-dwellers
(called Dogon) and the valley-dwellers have often been rivals,
and the Dogon successfully resisted Islamization until the
twentieth century. In 1895, following the conquest of
Ségou and
Timbuktu, the French stationed a military officer to Bandiagara.
PHOTO: Dogon village--courtesy of Jean Bahr |
| Bourem is a town located on the left bank of the Niger River, 95 kilometers northwest of Gao. It is a southern terminus of the trans-Saharan piste (from Algeria) used by traffic headed towards Timbuktu. | 
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| Dakar is the capital
of Senegal,
and
served as the capital of Afrique Occidentale Française
during the colonial period. It is a port city with an
excellent deep water harbor. It has an international airport and
rail connections to St. Louis, Senegal, and Bamako, Mali. [Map] |
| Gao is a town located
on the
left bank of the Niger River, 95 kilometers southeast of Gao. It
is a southern terminus of the trans-Saharan piste (from Algeria)
used by traffic headed towards Bamako, Burkina Faso and Ivory
Coast. Gao served as the center of the Cercle du Gao during the
colonial period, and currently serves as an administrative,
military and customs center for northeastern Mali.
[Map detail ]
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Goundam is a town
located on the
left bank of the Niger River between Niafunké and Timbuktu,
roughly 100 kilometers southwest of Timbuktu and 34 kilometers
nortthwest of Diré.
| Gourma-Rharous is a town located on the right bank of the Niger River roughly midway between Timbuktu and Bourem. |
Issa-Ber is a small town
on the
Middle Niger River downstream from Timbukltu and upstream from
Gao. [Map]
| Kayes is the town built by the French at the highest point of rainy season navigation on Senegal River. It was "founded" in 1881 when French military engineers started building a railroad from there to the Niger River at Bamako. It served as the capital of the French colony of Haut-Sénégal et Niger until 1904 and as the center of the Cercle de Kayes until independence. [Map] |  PHOTO: The first railroad station in Kayes, now abandoned |
 PHOTO: Switching operations on the Régie des Chemins de Fer de Mali (at Koulikoro) | Since independence, Kayes serves as a regional administrative and transportation center with rail and air connections to Dakar, Senegal and Bamako, Mali. It is also one of the hottest places in Mali, since it is located nearly as far north as Timbuktu. |
Kita is a colonial-era town
located on the railroad between Kayes and Bamako. It is the
administrative center of the Cercle de Kita and the
junction between the railroad and caravan routes leading north
towards the town of Nioro du Sahel and south to the country of
Guinea-Conakry.
| Koulikoro is a town located at the eastern terminus of the railroad that connects Dakar, Senegal to the Niger River. It is located at the highest point of navigation on the Middle Niger Valley, just downstream of the Sotuba Rapids. In 1885, at the site of an existing African village, the French built a camp for men who assembled and launched the steamship Niger. After a second steamship was launched there in 1887, Koulikoro became the base for French operations on the Middle Niger River. In 1904, work crews laid tracks to complete the Chemin de Fer de Kayes à Bafoulabé and built a station which opened on 10 December 1904. [Map] PHOTO: gardens and abandoned river barges at the Koulikoro waterfront |  |
Koutiala is a town
located in southeastern Mali, south-southeast of Ségou on
the road to Bobo-Dioulasso, near the broder between Mali and
Burkina-Faso.
| Labbezenga is a town on the Niger River southeast of Gao. It is located on the border between the modern countries of Mali and Niger. |
| Médine is located about 12 kilometers east of Kayes on the Upper Senegal River just below the Félou waterfall. Before colonization, it was the terminus of major caravan trading routes between the gold-producing region of the Falémé River and the grain/animal producing region around Nioro. After the French conquest and the selection of Kayes as the terminus of the railroad, there was a long period of competition for trade between the two towns, until Médine declined in the period after World War I. |  |
The Middle Niger Delta is
the portion of the Niger Valley located between Segou and
Timbuktu that changes into an enormous inland lake
during the rainy season. At those times, the river overflows its
banks, creating a maze of channels and islands across an area
that is roughly 150 miles long and 50 miles wide.
 PHOTO: Pedestrians in front of the principal mosque in Mopti. Photo courtesy of Jean Bahr. | Mopti is a colonial-era town located in the Middle Niger Delta region at the confluencee of the Niger and Bani Rivers. It is located on a cluster of islands at the mouth of the Bani River which have been connected by causeways. French hunters camped there in the 1890s while seeking egret feathers, and after the railroad was completed to Bamako in 1904, Mopti became an inland center for French commerce and the headquarteers of the Cercle du Mopti. [Map detail ] |
Oujda is a town in eastern
Morocco
near the Algerian border. It was the headquarters of the
Chemin de Fer Mediterranée-Niger in 1947.
 | The Sahel is a region
without
precise boundaries along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert,
north of the savanna region of tall grasses and bushes.
Historicdally, the Sahel has been the region where nomadic
pastoralists and sedentary farmers have interacted. |
Satadougou is a town
located 35 kilometers southwest of Kéniéba on the
Falémé River in southwest Mali. It is a center for
gold-mining.
 | Ségou is a town
located in the Middle Niger
Valley, downstream from Bamako and upstream from Timbuktu, at the
entrance to the "Middle Niger Delta." Mungo
Park visited the Bamara capital at Ségou in 1796 and 1805,
Al Hajj Umar Tall conquered it in 1854, and the French conquered
it in 1890. Subsequently, it served as the center of the
Cercle de Ségou under French administration, and is
currently a regional adminsitrative center in the Republic du
Mali.
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Sine-Saloum is a
region in Senegal at the mouth of the Sine and Saloum Rivers,
located between Dakar and the Gambian border.
| St. Louis was the site of the first permanent European settlement in Senegal. It is located on an island in the Senegal River a few kilometers from its mouth. Ocean-going ships could, with difficulty, clear the sand bar at the mouth of the river and reach St. Louis, and once they did, they could sail nearly three hundred miles inland on the Senegal River to Kayes during the rainy season. [Map] |
| The Tanezrouft is the portion of the Sahara Desert located north of the Niger River Bend and south of the Algerian oasis of Adrar. It is a stony plateau with nearly no water resources, which makes it difficult for animal caravans to cross. As a result, the Tanezrouft is one of the most desolate regions in the Sahara Desert. PHOTO: Nomad encampment in the Tanezrouft |  |
 | Thiès is the
most important
railroad town in Senegal. It is located at the junction of the
rail lines from Dakar, Bamako and St. Louis. It houses the main
railroad workshops constructed by the French in the 1920s, and
was the site of a number of major strikes in 1925, 1938 and 1947.
[Map] |
| Timbuktu (or as the French spell it, Tombouctou) is a town located left bank of the Niger River at its northernmost point. Throughout history, it served as the southern terminus for ther trans-Saharan trade routes that brought gold north to Morocco and salt south from Taoudenni. During the colonial period, it was used by the French as their military headquarters for the war against the nomads. [Map detail ] PHOTO: 19th century drawing of Timbuktu |
 |
Taoudenni is a site in
northern
Mali, about 700 kilometers north of Timbuktu in the Sahara
Desert. In the past, it was the source of rock salt mined in
slabs (barres) and shipped by camel to Timbuktu, and from there
to markets all over West Africa. More recently, it serves as a
prison for the government of Mali.
| The Upper Senegal Valley is the region beginning roughly at the Faleme River (a tributary of the Senegal River--see Bambuk) and extending eastward beyond Bafoulabé where the Bakhoy and Bafing Rivers join to form the Senegal. A large waterfall at Felou, just upstream from Medine, limits navuigation into the region from the coast. Until 1895, this region was administered as the military territory of Haut-Sénégal et Niger with the headquarters located at Kayes. After civilian rule was established, Kayes remained the colonial capital briefly until railroad construction resumed. The capital followed the railroad and by 1904, the French established the capital in Bamako. [Map] PHOTO: Upper Senegal Valley landscape | 
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