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Zenger
Zenger
World
Joseph Hammond

The World’s Largest Mud-Brick Building Is A Mosque Rebuilt Every Year

People take part in the annual rendering of the Great Mosque of Djenne in central Mali on April. 28, 2019. MICHELE CATTANI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Each year the residents of a modest town in central Mali work together to preserve one of the most iconic structures in both Islamic and African architectural history: the Great Mosque of Djenne, the world’s largest mud-brick structure.

The community of Djenne, home to approximately 40,000 residents, sits near the Ban River. That river allowed the grand mosque to be built from a resource that is both local and sustainable: calcite-rich mud. 

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