Azalai

A camel train traveling from Agadez to Bilma (Niger), 1985.
Slabs of salt from the mines of Taoudenni stacked on the quayside at the port of Mopti (Mali)
Rock salt at the market in Mopti. It is sold here in slabs, broken and weighed, and packaged into smaller amounts.

The Azalai (Tamasheq, var. Azalay) is a semi-annual salt caravan route practiced by Tuareg traders in the Sahara desert between Timbuktu and the Taoudenni salt mine in Mali,[1] or the act of traveling with a caravan along that route.

The other major West African salt caravan route, heading from around Agadez to Fachi and Bilma in Niger, is called Taghlamt (in Tamasheq, or Taglem or Tagalem in Hausa language).

The two are among the last caravan routes in the Sahara that are still in use. Both caravans have largely been replaced by unpaved truck routes.

  1. ^ Mali - Azalai - URL retrieved July 6, 2008