Latest / The Songhai Empire: Africa's Powerful Forgotten Kingdom — Fexingo History
Songhai's Waterworks: Wells, Canals, and Desert Engineering
Long before the Saadian invasion and the fall of Gao, the Songhai Empire's power rested on more than gold, salt, and cavalry. It rested on water. In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the empire's hydraulic infrastructure — the wells, cisterns, and canals that sustained armies, cities, and trade routes across the Sahel. We explore how Sonni Ali's dredging of the Niger waterways opened trade to Djenne, how Askia Muhammad's administration organized well-digging along desert caravan routes like the one to Tawdenni, and how urban wells in Timbuktu and Gao became hubs of…
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