Sahara Salt Trade Routes

Timeline

1. 800–1200Taghaza · MaliBerber and Songhai merchants mined rock salt slabs at Taghaza, and camel caravans crossed the Sahara to carry salt to markets of the Ghana Empire and later the Mali Empire, exchanging it for West African gold on equal terms.
2. 1400–1590Timbuktu · MaliThe Songhai Empire controlled hub cities like Timbuktu, where salt caravans and gold merchants converged; salt slabs circulated by weight across a vast West African region, sustaining imperial finances and urban economies.
3. 1591–1660Gao · MaliMoroccan forces occupied the Songhai heartland after the Battle of Tondibi, and salt-route trade reorganized amid the warfare; local polities and Arab-Berber merchants still maintained trans-Saharan salt transport, but the political order was turbulent.
4. 1661–1670Timbuktu–Taghaza caravan route · MaliDespite waning Moroccan suzerainty and intensifying local fragmentation, camel caravans in the 1660s still regularly hauled rock salt from the mines to cities of the Niger River basin; salt remained indispensable as hard currency in the West African interior economy.