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Anyone wishing to travel from Bamako, the capital of Mali, to Gao embarks on a long journey. It takes the traveller eastwards via Segou, the centre of the former Bambara kingdom, past Djenné with its world-famous mosque and via Mopti into the southern part of the Sahara. When the traveller has passed the imposing Hombori range, the ferry takes him across the Niger to Gao.
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Gao has over 52,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the Gao region. Lying at the intersection of important trade routes the town developed in the 15th century to become a centre of trans-Saharan trade. It was the capital of the kingdom of the Songhai, the oldest black African people in Mali.
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