Hombori

Hombori lies at the foot of a dramatic sandstone massif rising above the Sahelian plains south of the Niger bend. The flat-topped heights of Hombori Tondo overlook villages and pasture, while their cliffs shelter traces of much earlier occupation. Songhai-speaking communities settled in the region after the fall of the Songhai empire at the end of the sixteenth century. Their traditions preserve memories of the empire in a landscape shared with pastoralists and other neighbouring peoples.