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The Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali, often called the largest mud-brick building in the world, survives because the whole town re-plasters its walls with fresh mud every year before the rains.

Djenné, Mali, 1907

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The story behind the card

The present building was completed in 1907 under Ismaila Traoré, head of the town's guild of masons, on the site of a mosque said to date from the 13th century. Its walls are made of sun-dried mud bricks, and bundles of palm wood jutting from them serve as permanent scaffolding. Rain wears the plaster away each year, so every spring the town holds a festival, the Crépissage, to renew it. Men and boys race to carry baskets of mud up the walls, women bring water from the river, and the elders of the masons' guild direct the work. Djenné's old town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988.

Türkçe oku
Mali'nin Cenne (Djenné) kentindeki Ulu Cami, çoğu zaman dünyanın en büyük kerpiç yapısı diye anılır. Yapı, bütün kent halkı her yıl yağmurlardan önce duvarlarını taze çamurla yeniden sıvadığı için ayakta kalıyor.
Cenne, Mali, 1907

Bugünkü yapı 1907'de, kentin duvarcı loncasının başı Ismaila Traoré'nin yönetiminde, 13. yüzyıldan kaldığı söylenen bir caminin yerinde tamamlandı. Duvarları güneşte kurutulmuş kerpiçtendir; duvarlardan dışarı taşan palmiye kütükleri kalıcı bir iskele işi görür. Yağmur her yıl sıvayı aşındırır; bu yüzden kent her baharda “Crépissage” adlı bir şenlikle sıvayı yeniler. Erkekler ve oğlan çocukları sepetlerle çamuru duvarlara taşımak için yarışır, kadınlar nehirden su getirir, işi duvarcı loncasının yaşlı ustaları yönetir. Cenne'nin eski kenti 1988'den beri UNESCO Dünya Mirası Listesi'ndedir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Great Mosque of Djenné
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