Card #065 · HistoryDex
Ghana Empire
The puzzle
Where?Where did this empire extend?
When?Around what period did this empire extend?
Reveal the answer
The answer
- Place
- Koumbi Saleh (present-day Mauritania)
- Date
- 8th–13th century
In the app: the right region in Explorer mode, within 1200 km in Historian mode.
The first great trading empire of West Africa, master of the trans-Saharan gold and salt routes.
Ghana Empire
Mauritania · 8th–13th century
A merchant kingdom that draws its wealth from trading gold for salt across a huge desert. Its name was later taken up by another state.
From the 8th to the 13th century, the Ghana Empire, or Wagadu, controlled the trade of gold for Saharan salt from Koumbi Saleh, in present-day Mauritania. Weakened in the 11th century in ways still debated, it was absorbed by the Mali Empire in 1240. The Republic of Ghana, more than 1,500 km to the south, borrowed its name.
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