1720 MALI - Timbuktu (UNESCO WHS)

Situated 20km north of the River Niger, on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, Timbuktu became a permanent settlement early in the 12th century, and flourished from the trade in salt, gold, ivory and slaves, entering into the composition of the Mali Empire early in the 14th century. In the first half of the 15th century the Tuareg tribes took control of the city until the Songhai Empire absorbed the city in 1468. A Moroccan army defeated the Songhai in 1591, and made Timbuktu their capital. In its golden age, the town's numerous Islamic scholars and extensive trading network made possible an important book trade: together with the campuses of the Sankore Madrasah, an Islamic university, this established Timbuktu as a scholarly centre in Africa.

1497 MALI (Mopti) - Cliff of Bandiagara, Land of the Dogons (UNESCO WHS)

The Cliff of Bandiagara is a vast cultural landscape, which includes 289 villages scattered between the three natural regions: sandstone plateau, escarpment, plains (more than two-thirds of the listed perimeter are covered by plateau and cliffs). The sandstone cliff rises about 500m above the lower sandy flats to the south, and has a length of approximately 150km. The geological, archaeological and ethnological interest, together with the landscape, make the Bandiagara plateau one of West Africa's most impressive sites. Human settlements in the region, since Palaeolithic times, have enabled the development and harmonious integration into the landscape of rich and dense tangible and intangible cultures, the best known of which are those of the Tellem, that are thought to live in the caves, and the Dogon.