Grande Mosquée de Dinguiraye

The Grande Mosquée de Dinguiraye is one of the most important Islamic sites in West Africa — founded by El Hadj Umar Tall (1797–1864) in the 1840s as the religious base for his Tijaniyya Sufi order and the launching pad for the jihad that built the Toucouleur Empire across the Senegambia and the upper Niger.

The current building is a Sudano-Sahelian mud structure rebuilt several times; the conical roof of straw and the painted wooden door are local. Non-Muslims may approach the building but cannot enter; the holy quarter around it includes Umar Tall's residence and the tomb of his daughter. Annual pilgrimages bring thousands of Tijani followers from across West Africa.

things to do sight architecture
A story
El Hadj Umar Tall declared his jihad from Dinguiraye in 1852, launching from this mosque a campaign that would eventually conquer most of present-day Mali and parts of Guinea, Senegal, and Mauritania. His son Ahmadu Tall continued the empire from Bandiagara until the French defeated it in 1893. The mosque is the spiritual headquarters of the Tijaniyya Sufi order in the western Sahel.