Taoudenni

Taoudenni lies deep in the Sahara, amid salt flats north of Timbuktu. Its mines supplied slabs of rock salt to caravans travelling south across the desert. Workers cut the mineral from beds beneath the surface, and camels carried the heavy loads towards the markets of the Niger, where salt was valued alongside goods brought from the savanna.

In the late sixteenth century the struggle between Morocco and Songhai brought a change to the salt trade. As the older mines of Taghaza passed under Moroccan control, Songhai turned to the deposits at Taoudenni. After the Moroccan conquest of Songhai and the abandonment of Taghaza, Taoudenni became the principal source of salt for this route, sustaining a long caravan connection with Timbuktu.