This is the Great Zimbabwe also known as the Imba Huru or Great Expansion. The wall is about 800 feet in length, 32 feet in height, and 17 feet thick. This ruined city in the southern hills of Zimbabwe used to be the capital kingdom during the country’s late iron age. The city spans to an area of 1780 acres and could have housed up to 18,000 people. Great Zimbabwe also served as a royal palace for the Zimbabwean monarch. Great Zimbabwe was thought to be a major trading center extending as far as China, the main export being gold and ivory. The decline of the city was probably linked to the decline of trade after it exhausted its supply of gold.

This is the Great Friday Mosque in Mali, this building was rebuilt in in 1906 because the original was destroyed. This building is made of sun baked bricks known as ferey and then coated in plaster. The building is decorated with sticks projecting out 2 feet known as toron, this made it possible to climb the walls of the mosque for repairs. On the roof of the building there are ceramic half-pipes which are used to direct rainwater and the roof vents allow hot air to escape. The building also has three square shaped minarets each of which has its own mihrab.

The buildings were made for two different purposes, the Great Zimbabwe was primarily a trading town while the Great Friday Mosque is primarily used for prayer and rituals.