The end of the trip. I was getting sick the moment I shot these last pictures. I have no idea how they cooked the chicken I ate at night, I felt dehidratated and tired. That was the only village where they could cook something and it would make my stomach sicker for sure. They don´t sell water in the desert and my bottle was almost finished. I still had to climb to get out of the desert by car and rest for two days. Such a nightmare... but I am safe back home now :-)






I woke up that morning with the rythmic sound of women mashing millet in the wooden buckets.

Could the old Tellem hide and build their villages so high looking for protection?

Are we really climbing up there?

Can you see a woman standing there?

Toguna, to discuss matters

Ende village:

(Can you see the small houses built in the huge stone up there?)

Teli village:



Tellem houses. The ancient tellem located their villages in defensible positions along the walls of the sandstone cliff of up to 500m, stretching about 150 km. Later they left, perhaps running away from slave hunters and from Islam and the Dogon resettled in the villages of the Tellem in the XIVth century.

The inaccesible position of the old villages protected the Dogon from enemies and beasts. They had to descend every day to search water and work in the fields.

Dogon orally transmited legends tell that the red men that used to inhabit the lands where they resettled possessed magical powers that let them fly. The wall of the mountain was probably covered in vegetation.

Kani Kombole village:

Can you see Kanikombole down there?

Djigibombo, a Dogon village: