Songhai
What is Gao?
This city, located on the Niger River, served as the Songhai capital from which the empire controlled trans-Saharan trade.
What is Hadar?
Lucy was discovered on November 24, 1974, by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray at this site in Ethiopia.
What is Mecca?
This holy city was the final destination of Mansa Musa's famous pilgrimage, which started in 1324 CE.
Who is King Lalibela?
This Ethiopian king, ruling in the 1100s, ordered 11 churches to be carved completely out of solid stone, mortar, or concrete.
What is the kingdom of Axum?
Aksum was the first sub-Saharan African state to officially adopt Christianity around 350 CE. It also created its own script, Ge'ez, which is still used in Ethiopia today.
Who is King Sunni Ali (or Sonni Ali Ber)?
This king, who ruled from 1464 to 1492, dramatically expanded the empire and used the region's only naval fleet on the Niger River.
What is "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"?
Lucy was given her common name because this famous song by The Beatles was playing repeatedly during the celebratory night of her discovery.
What is over a year?
Mansa Musa’s massive caravan, which reached Cairo in 1324, reportedly consisted of over 60,000 people and 80 camels. The journey itself reportedly took this long.
What is Jerusalem?
This holy city was the inspiration for Lalibela's project, as the king reportedly wanted to create an "African" version of it.
Who is King Lalibela?
In the 1100s, an Ethiopian ruler named Lalibela ordered 11 churches to be carved entirely out of solid rock. An architect suggested he aimed to create an "African Jerusalem
What is the Moroccan Empire (or Morocco)?
Weakened by civil wars, the Songhai Empire was eventually defeated around 1591 by this North African power.
What is Australopithecus afarensis?
This is the scientific name (species) for Lucy, shared with other hominid fossils found elsewhere in East Africa.
What is the Catalan Atlas?
Mansa Musa was featured on this famous 1375 European map, literally putting himself and the Mali Empire "on the map".
What is downwards?
This is the direction in which workers excavated the solid rock, first digging a trench around the perimeter and then carving the church inward.
What is Great Zimbabwe?
Great Zimbabwe’s Great Enclosure walls, which were 30 feet high and 20 feet thick, were built using dry stone masonry without using mortar or cement.
What are muskets (or cannons/guns)?
The final defeat of the Songhai army was swift due to a technological mismatch, as the Moroccan force was armed with these weapons, while the Songhai used spears and arrows.
What is bipedal locomotion (or walking upright)?
Scientists determined Lucy was a hominin because her bones, including her pelvis and distal femur, showed clear evidence of this trait.
What is Cairo?
Mansa Musa’s staggering wealth caused economic problems in this famous Egyptian city, where his gold spending reportedly caused mass inflation.
What is the Church of St. George?
This magnificent church, considered the masterpiece among the 11, is carved entirely in the distinctive shape of a cross.
What is Kilwa?
Kilwa was a Muslim city-state that grew rich by charging duties (taxes) on all goods entering the port. The traveler Ibn Battuta described it as "one of the most beautiful... towns in the world".
What is Timbuktu?
Following its conquest in 1469 and 1473, Songhai controlled this major trade and learning center on the Niger River, which had a population of about 100,000 in the mid-15th century CE.
What is Addis Ababa?
The "real" Lucy skeleton is stored in a specially constructed safe in the Paleoanthropology Laboratories of this city in Ethiopia.
What is the Djinguereber Mosque (or Great Mosque of Timbuktu)?
Upon returning from his pilgrimage, Mansa Musa brought back scholars and architects to build this magnificent structure in Timbuktu.
What are angels?
The faithful of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church credit these heavenly beings with working overnight to build the rock-hewn churches.
What is Portugal?
Armies from the European country of Portugal captured and looted Kilwa in 1505 CE. The Portuguese seized control of the Indian Ocean trade routes and built forts along the coast.