From the tower I had an extensive view over an immense plain of white sand, on which nothing grows except a few stunted shrubs, the mimosa ferruginea, and where the uniformity of the picture is only here and there broken by some scattered hills or banks of sand. I could not help contemplating with astonishment the extraordinary city before me, created solely by the wants of commerce, and destitute of every resource except what its accidental position as a place of exchange affords. The western quarter of the mosque seems very ancient, but the whole façade on that side is in ruins. There are also some vaulted arcades, from which the whole of the plaster facing is detached. This mosque is constructed of sun-dried bricks, of nearly the same form as those made in Europe. The walls are rough-cast with a kind of coarse sand, similar to that of which the bricks are made, mixed with the gluten of rice. In some parts of the desert there is found a very hard ash-coloured earth, in which sand predominates. This earth has been used in making the bricks for the mosque. The rest of the edifice appears to have been built after the western part was in ruins. Though the new part is very well for a people ignorant of architecture, it is greatly inferior to the ancient remains.
I was surprised to find in the ancient part three galleries, each supported by ten arcades, as well built as if they had been the work of a skilful architect. The arches are six feet wide and ten high; there the plaster is in an excellent state, and appears to have been white-washed. The style and the position of this building connect it with the ruins. I am inclined to think that the mosque consisted originally of this part only, and that additions were afterwards made to it.
The eastern part is composed of six galleries; those of the west are supported by nineteen pillars. The apertures are each six feet and a half wide, and ten or eleven high. The workmanship, though pretty well executed, is, as I have already observed, far from equalling that of the other quarter. The first three galleries on the east side, are one hundred and four ordinary paces[7] long, and about two and a half broad: the three next are only sixty-four long. The length of those on the west is only thirty nine paces. They lead to the great tower, which faces an inner court, closed on the west by the ruins. It is of a square form, but terminates in a small truncated pyramid, which is also built of brick and surmounted by a pot of baked earth. Its height may be estimated at fifty or fifty-five feet from the base to the summit. The steps of the staircase, which is constructed internally, are supported by pieces of wood fixed in the walls and covered with earth. The dilapidated state of the staircase prevented me from ascertaining the exact number of the steps, but I observed the traces of thirty-two.
SKETCH OF THE PLAN OF THE GREAT MOSQUE OF TIMBUCTOO, AND VIEW TAKEN FROM THE E. N. E.
1, 4, 3, DETAILS OF THE GREAT MOSQUE OF TIMBUCTOO; 4, 5, PLAN AND FRONT OF THE HOUSE OF SIDI ABDALLAH CHEBIR, IN WHICH MR. CAILLIÉ RESIDED.
The walls of the mosque are fifteen feet high and twenty-five or twenty-six inches thick. The top of the wall of the east front is indented in the form of battlements, the salient parts of which are surmounted by pots of baked earth, similar to that on the summit of the tower.