Old City (Vieux Quartier)

The old city of Agadez is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 2013) and one of the best-preserved medieval Saharan settlements on the continent. The streets are narrow enough to provide shade for most of the day, lined with compounds whose exterior walls give nothing away — the life of the city is entirely interior, hidden behind doors in unmarked mud-brick walls. Without a guide, navigation is disorienting by design.

A local guide is strongly recommended for exploring the old city. Many families are willing to receive visitors in their courtyards; the traditional Tuareg and Hausa architecture — wooden-beamed rooms, geometrically decorated ceilings, storage rooms thick-walled against the desert heat — is the main attraction. The alleys around the Grande Mosquée are the most atmospheric. In the evening the old city fills with the sound of cooking and prayer, and the temperature drops to something bearable.

things to do sight neighbourhood
A story
Agadez was founded as a trading post on the trans-Saharan route in the 11th century. At its peak in the 16th century it had 30,000 inhabitants — larger than many European cities of the time — and controlled the gold and slave trade between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. The Songhai conquest in 1515 ended its golden age, and it has never quite recovered its regional dominance, which is part of why the city has changed so little since.