Alicia Ortego
Bani, the City of Nine Mosques
Bani, the city of the 9 mosques in Burkina, is en route to Gao from Ouagadougou, in the east. The special thing about this town is that it is full of mud mosques. These mosques have been built by the "enlightened" ones, or so we are told! The man who today is the imam of the people, began to dream about what God told him to do; he had to build a large mosque, and so he did. But he only had the help of the common people, no architectural knowledge, no plans, but only by pure intuition and dreams... Slowly the Grand Mosque was erected, with strong pillars and a large terrace .... Then he continued to build other mosques, 9 in total ....
The others are all based on the original design of and facing the Grand Mosque, instead of being oriented towards Mecca, as is usual. This is another of it's unique characterstics. Today it is a popular attraction for the few tourists who do go that route. They stop to admire these curious constructions, which are inspired by the other great mosques of the region, but each is original in it's own way. For example, in the facade of the Grand Mosque can be seen some figures; some with arms up, others down ... these represent different aspects of the praying and kneeling of the Muslim faith.
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