There is very little known about the history of Taghaza. It is in the north of modern day Mali. The major reason for the population of Taghaza at the time was the salt mines. Salt was extremely important, especially during the time of Ibn Battuta because it was used for preserving food. Ross Dunn notes that each caravan that went to the Sudan took salt because it was such an important product [2].

The city was not a beautiful city by any means when Ibn Battuta visited. He said that there were no attractions in Taghaza, and there were only a few homes and one mosque built in the city. The homes were built from salt and mud, and only had camel skin as a roof. It was not the beauty he was used to from a majority of the other cities he visited. He thoroughly disliked the town. The only people living in the city were the slaves of the Mussufah, the rural Berber people. He said the water was brackish, and filled with flies. He was happy to move on after ten days to Gao and Malli. The town of Taghaza was destroyed by the Moroccan Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur in the 16th century.

 

Sources:

[1] Dunn, Ross. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005.