Wadi Walata

Between Walata and the Niger bend lies a dry country of dunes and seasonal watercourses. Caravan routes crossed this southern edge of the Sahara, joining the trading town of Walata with Timbuktu and the markets farther south. Travellers relied on wells and knowledge of the seasons to move people and goods across the sparse landscape. Walata was an important destination for trans-Saharan trade in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, before Timbuktu grew into the principal southern terminus.