MALI (MAH-lee)
A
country in west Africa
Common
clues: Niger
neighbor; French Sudan, now; Mauritania neighbor; Bamako is its
capital; Timbuktu's country; Algeria neighbor; Burkina Faso
neighbor; Saharan nation
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
6 times a year
Frequency
in English language:
49463 / 86800
News:
Learning
from Timbuktu
Video:
The Lost
Libraries of Timbuktu
The
hyena chasing two antelopes at the same time will go to bed
hungry ~
Mali proverb
The
Republic of Mali is
a country in west Africa, formerly a French colony.
The
Sudanese Republic and Senegal became independent of France on
September 22, 1960 as the Mali Federation. When
Senegal withdrew after only a few months, the Sudanese Republic
was renamed Mali. Rule
by dictatorship was brought to a close in 1991 with a
transitional government, and in 1992 when Mali's first democratic
presidential election was held. Upon his reelection in 1997,
President Konare pushed through political and economic reforms
and fought corruption. In 2002 he was succeeded in democratic
elections by Amadou Toumani Touré.
Landscape
in Hombori
Landscape
in Hombori
At
478,734 mi² (1,240,000 km²[1]), Mali is the world's
24th-largest country (after Angola). It is comparable in size to
South Africa, and is nearly twice the size of the US state of
Texas.
Mali
is among the poorest countries in the world, with 65% of its land
area desert or semidesert.
Mali
is home of the legendary Timbuktu.
Timbuktu
was established as a seasonal camp by the nomadic Tuareg perhaps
as early as the 10th century and grew to great wealth because of
its key role in trans-Saharan trade in gold, ivory, slaves, salt
and other goods, transferring goods from caravans to boats on the
Niger. It was the key city in several successive empires: the
Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire from 1324, and the Songhai Empire
from 1468, the second occupations beginning when the population
invited the empires to overthrow Tuareg leaders who had regained
control. It reached its peak in the early 1500s.
The
leaders of the Songhai kingdom (also spelled Songhay) began
expanding their domain along the Niger River. Like the kingdoms
of Ghana and Mali that flourished in the region in earlier
centuries, Songhai grew powerful because of its control of local
trade routes. Timbuktu would soon become the heart of the mighty
Songhai Empire.
This
article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html).
It uses material from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu
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