Ailsa has chosen architecture as her theme this week so I’m showing you the mosque at Larabanga, Northern Ghana. It’s said to be 500 years old and the oldest mosque in Africa. I’ve always wanted to see the mosque at Djenne in Mali, supposedly the biggest mud and stick mosque but that will probably never happen, so even on a rainy day I was thrilled to see this one. Of course non-Muslims were not permitted to go inside.

There is a legend about an Islamic trader who discovered the nearby mystic stone

and decided to sleep wherever his spear landed. He dreamt of building a mosque on that very spot and in the morning woke to find the foundations had mysteriously been laid during the night. He saw this as a sign, completed the building and now lies buried under the baobab tree beside the mosque.

What do you think? was the trader the architect?

Join in at http://wheresmybackpack.com/2013/08/09/travel-theme-architecture/