This is the Grand Mosquée in Agadez, but let me backtrack a little....
The third day in Niger, we hopped on a bus for a 6.5 hour ride from Konni to Agadez (for an idea of where in the heck that is in Niger, please check out the map in the post below). It was a LONG ride, with a wind storm in the desert making it almost impossible to see. Dust EVERYWHERE. Our bags from under the bus were barely recognizable when we retrieved them.
The fourth day in the country, we went to the Grand Mosquée. It was pretty impressive. Much of the architecture in the countrinvolveses mud bricks. This place was NO exception. It's been there since the early 16th century, with the "minaret's distinctive structure" dating from 1844, according to lonelyplanet.com.
We climbed up the structure. The ceilings were LOW and we kept bumping our heads.
That's the stairs we climbed (and possibly my favorite photo from the trip!)
This is the little squares that let in light so you can see where you're going as you climb up the Mosquée. We had to leave our sandals at the door, so my soft, American feet took a beating from tsandamd that covered the steps as we climbed to the top.
The view from the top was great!
It was all sorts of windy, so our guide from the hotel huddled down, out of the wind. He was great, and helped keep the children who kept asking us for money away, as well as the incredibly persistent street peddlers who wanted us to buy anything from necklaces to CDs.
This is on the climb back down.Thethe fellows who collected the money before we were allowed to go up.
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