A country · 27 places · 7 regions

Mali, all of it.

27 curated places across 7 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.

National Museum of Mali · via Wikimedia Commons

The 4 biggest regions — Mopti Region, Bamako, Timbuktu Region and Ségou Region — read below as chapters, with 3 more waiting past them.

Chapter I · Mopti Region · 8 places

Mopti Region

Built across three islands at the meeting of the Niger and Bani rivers, Mopti is Mali's busiest river port, nicknamed the Venice of Mali. Its mud-brick mosque and harbour crowded with painted pinasse boats capture life on the Niger.

Mopti

Mopti Region, Mali

✦ November to February, when river levels and temperatures are favourable · $

Hombori Tondo

Mopti Region, Mali

✦ November to February · $

Great Mosque of Djenné

Mopti Region, Mali

✦ November to February

All 8 places in Mopti Region →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Bamako · 4 places

Bamako

The National Museum of Mali in Bamako is the country's leading cultural institution, tracing its origins to the colonial period and rebuilt in modern galleries in the 1980s. Its collection of textiles, masks, terracottas and archaeological finds is among the richest in West Africa, with celebrated holdings from the Niger Inland Delta and Dogon country. Its architecture echoes Sudano-Sahelian mud styles, and its gardens hold reconstructed traditional structures. It helps safeguard Malian heritage threatened by conflict.

✦ November–February · $

Meet National Museum of Mali All 4 places in Bamako →

Chapter III · Timbuktu Region · 4 places

Timbuktu Region

One of Timbuktu's three ancient mosques, built in the fifteenth century and named for a revered local imam. Its mud-brick walls and low tower are a focus of the city's religious life and folklore.

Sidi Yahya Mosque

Timbuktu Region, Mali

✦ November to February · $

Djingareyber Mosque

Timbuktu Region, Mali

✦ November to February

Sankore Mosque

Timbuktu Region, Mali

✦ November to February

All 4 places in Timbuktu Region →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter IV · Ségou Region · 2 places

Ségou Region

A riverside town of shaded balanzan trees and earthen colonial buildings on the Niger, once the seat of the Bambara Empire. Pottery villages across the river, bogolan mud-cloth workshops and the Festival sur le Niger define its creative character.

✦ November to February; the river festival is held in early February · $

Meet Ségou All 2 places in Ségou Region →