Dakar is the city located at the furthest west point in Africa, and indeed in the entire continental eastern hemisphere. From Dakar, a flight to Recife in Brazil, which is in the western hemisphere, would be more of a north-south route than east-west.
Dakar is the capital and largest city of Senegal, and is located on the coast. Unlike Nigeria and Ivory Coast, which also have their largest cities on the Atlantic coast, Senegal has not moved it's capital city back to an inland city which would reflect the historical kingdoms in west Africa which were inland, and not focused on the coast.What is now Senegal was once part of the great Mali Empire. The name of this empire lives on in an inland west African nation. The dominant ethnic group is the well-known Mandinka.
The title of Mansa meant "king" in the Mali Empire. The best-known of these kings is Mansa Musa. There was gold in the Mali Empire and Mansa Musa is remembered as possibly the richest man who ever lived, relative to his time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali#/media/File:Catalan_Atlas_BNF_Sheet_6_Mansa_Musa.jpg
One of the most fabled stories in world history is the pilgrimage that Mansa Musa made to Mecca in 1324. He brought an entourage of tens of thousands of people with him. Camels carried tons of gold. On the way to Mecca, he paid to build mosques and gave away gold to those in need. He gave away so much gold in Egypt that the economy of the country took years to recover from the resulting inflation.
The pilgrimage of Mansa Musa, and the generous gifts of tons of gold, may actually have changed world history. The Age of Exploration would begin toward the end of the following century. It began with Spain and Portugal, the European countries that are geographically the closest to northwest Africa, and the overwhelming driving factor was the relentless search for gold. Persistent rumors of "cities of gold" are what drove the exploration of much of the western hemisphere, in the relentless quest to find them.
At the time of Mansa Musa, Spain and Portugal were ruled by the Moors, who were also from northwest Africa, as we saw in "When The Moors Ruled Spain". Could it be that stories of Mansa Musa's famous pilgrimage, and the seemingly-endless gold that he gave away, is what ultimately fueled the drive of Europeans, starting with Spain and Portugal, to explore the entire world?
There were two great cities of the Mali Empire that are still there today. These are Timbuktu and Djenne. Both were inland and not on the coast.
Unfortunately, there is no coverage by Google Street View for either city. But here are some photos of the fabled Timbuktu, once part of the Mali Empire and now in the modern nation of Mali. Not only was it fabulously wealthy, but was a great Islamic center of learning in the same way as Cordoba, Baghdad and, Cairo. I can remember the name of Timbuktu being used as a euphemism for a place that is far away or unreachable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu#/media/File:Timbuktu-139086.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu#/media/File:Timbuktu_Mosque_Sankore.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu#/media/File:Barth_1858_Timbuktu_from_terrace.jpg
Not quite as well-known as Timbuktu is the city of Djenne.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djenn%C3%A9#/media/File:Great_Mosque_of_Djenn%C3%A9_1.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djenn%C3%A9#/media/File:Djenn%C3%A9.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djenn%C3%A9#/media/File:Djenne_Fortier_407.jpg
This is the modern city of Dakar, it is on the Atlantic coast, and not far inland like Timbuktu and Djenne. The following scenes begin at Cathedral Notre Dame of Dakar.
There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.
Proceeding northward, we come to the area of Dakar known as Medina.
https://www.google.com/maps/@14.6848484,-17.4461469,3a,75y,134.36h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s6bQvXrH8G9wGEpmfraJAWA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D6bQvXrH8G9wGEpmfraJAWA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D134.35756%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
This is known as Grand Dakar.
https://www.google.com/maps/@14.7015404,-17.4561538,3a,75y,324.01h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s0f4ugjYh26WVAuGK2pk66A!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D0f4ugjYh26WVAuGK2pk66A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D324.0074%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
Further north is Grand-Noff.
https://www.google.com/maps/@14.7289188,-17.4507952,3a,75y,34.63h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s1unORmBM_1GreyfOcAxcZw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D1unORmBM_1GreyfOcAxcZw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D34.633324%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
This area of Dakar is known as Bel Air.
https://www.google.com/maps/@14.7120236,-17.4331515,3a,75y,14.88h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sSHvqpC0VSQ3_l1DqWtiqjg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DSHvqpC0VSQ3_l1DqWtiqjg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D14.883656%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
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