Photo of Dogon granaries (grain storage areas) built at the foot of the cliffs of the Bandiagara Escarpment. Look closely, and you will also see houses built into the cliff wall itself (upper half of the photo).

Bandiagara Escarpment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bandiagara Escarpment is an escarpment in the Dogon country of Mali.

The sandstone cliff rises about 500 meters above the lower sandy flats to the south. It has a length of approximately 150 kilometers. The area of the escarpment is inhabited today by the Dogon people. Before the Dogon the escarpment was inhabited by the Tellem and Toloy. Many buildings remain from the Tellem.

The Bandiagara Escarpment was listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1989.

The Cliffs of Bandiagara are a sandstone chain ranging from south to northeast over 200 km and extending to the Grandamia massif. The end of the massif is marked by the Hombori Tondo, Mali's highest peak at 1,115 meters. Because of its archaeological, ethnological and geological characteristics, the entire site is one of the most imposing in West Africa.

The cave-dwelling Tellem, an ethnic group later pushed out by the arrival of the Dogons, used to live in the slopes of the cliff. Dozens of villages are located along the cliff, such as Kani Bonzon. It was near to this village that the Dogons arrived in the 14th century and from there they spread over the plateau, the escarpment and the plains of the Seno-Gondo.

For the full content of this article, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandiagara_Escarpment. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Keywords:
Dogon Country, dogon architecture, Mali, west africa, west african architecture, african art, tribes, tribe, ethnic groups, ethnic group, ethnicity, culture, cultural, cultures, sahel, bandiagara escarpment, mopti, international development, underdeveloped country, underdeveloped, fine art photography, photographic art, photo, photos, picture, pictures, travel photography, documentary photography

Ref: 1999_0012_Mali

Location: Dogon Country, Mali

Photographer: Irene Abdou