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Tellem ruins in cliff, Bandiagara escarpment, Mali, June 1998 Photo ©1998 by L. Lee McIntyre |
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Tellem ruins in cliff, Bandiagara escarpment, Mali, June 1998 Photo ©1998 by L. Lee McIntyre |
High up in the cliffs, tucked into narrow shelves in the rock face, are small stone and clay structures that have been protected for centuries from the rain by the overhanging cliffs. Many of these contain the remains of the people who lived in this region before the Dogon arrived, whom the Dogon call Tellem. Many of these caves have been looted by people in the employ of antiquities dealers looking for objects that can be sold as art on the international market. A few have been studied scientifically by teams of archaeologists.