Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca

In 1324, Mansa Musa, the ruler of the Mali Empire, travelled to Mecca with a caravan said to have had thousands of attendants and dozens of camels carrying gold. He distributed so much gold in Cairo that its value fell for a decade or more, and Arab writers recalled it for generations. On the way home he brought back scholars and the architect Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, who designed the Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu. His journey put Mali on the maps of Europe: the Catalan Atlas of 1375 shows him seated on a throne with a golden nugget. He is often called the richest person in history.

Open on the timeline