Note: Some historians believe that, after leaving Walata, Mansa Musa's hajj made the difficult trip north to Taghaza. We have no record of Mansa Musa's stay in Taghaza, but we do have a description of the place from the famous Arab scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta (ib-n ba-tu-tah), who visited Taghaza in 1352. This is 28 years after Mansa Musa would have passed through. This is a village with nothing good about it. One of its marvels is that its houses and its mosque are of rock salt and its roofs of camel skins. It has no trees, but is nothing but sand with a salt mine. They dig in the carth for the salt, which is found in great slabs lying one upon the other as though they have been shaped and placed underground. A camel carries two slabs of it. Nobody lives there except the slaves of the Masufa who dig for the salt. They live on the dates imported to them [from Morocco] and on camel meat... The Sudan [black peoples from the gold-producing forests lands to the south] come to them from their land and carry the salt away. One load of it sold at the city of [ Niani] for 30 or 20 mithgals [of gold]. The Sudan use salt for currency as gold and silver is used. They cut it into pieces and use it for their transactions. Despite the meanness [desolation] of the village of Taghaza they deal with [quantity] upon [quantity] of gold there. We stayed there for ten days, under strain because the water there is brackish [salty]. It is the most fly-ridden of places