West Africa(UN: Western Africa)
Mali
Republic of Mali
Heart of the Ghana, Mali and Songhai empires and of Timbuktu's manuscript libraries, now facing insurgency across its north and centre.
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Mali in pictures
Flag, landscapes, landmarks and wildlife you can meet in the games. Photographs come from each subject’s Wikipedia article.
Flag
Flag of Mali
National flag
- Great Mosque of Djenné
Landscape
Great Mosque of Djenné
A real place in Mali
- Great Mosque of Djenné
Landmark
Great Mosque of Djenné
The largest mud-brick building on Earth, replastered every year by the whole town.
- Timbuktu manuscripts
Landmark
Timbuktu manuscripts
Hundreds of thousands of handwritten books on law, maths and astronomy.
- Bandiagara Escarpment
Landmark
Bandiagara Escarpment
Villages built into a 150 km sandstone cliff, with granaries tucked in caves.
- Tomb of Askia
Landmark
Tomb of Askia
A 17-metre mud pyramid built in 1495 for the emperor of Songhai.
- Bamako
City
Bamako
Capital of Mali
Capital
Bamako
Population
25,198,821
World Bank, 2025
Area
1,240,192 km²
Currency
West African CFA franc
GDP per person
$1,193
Current US$, 2025
Life expectancy
60.7 yrs
World Bank, 2024
Urban population
32.2%
UN member
Yes
Quick facts
Did you know?
Djenné's mosque is the largest mud-brick building in the world.
The Kurukan Fuga is one of the oldest known charters of governance in the world.
Your route
Where to start with Mali
Every chapter above begins with the essentials and then lets you keep going deeper — four levels of depth, or your own question, researched from this country's reference data and our sourced library.
Go deeper: Orientation of Mali
Researched live from this country's reference data and our library. Keep pressing to go further, or ask your own question.
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Reference figures come from the World Bank Open Data API and the ISO 3166 country dataset, each shown with its year. Historical and cultural text is written by our editors and marks contested dating where scholars disagree. The "go deeper" chapters are generated live by Africa AI from that same reference data and our sourced library — check them before quoting. Borders shown are for orientation and do not imply a position on any dispute.