Tireli

Tireli

Tireli is a village in Mali, in Dogon country, on the Bandiagara Escarpment, in the Bandiagara Cercle. It lies 11 km south-southwest of Sangha and Banani and 28 km east of Bandiagara. The sandstone cliffs of the Bandiagara Escarpment rise some 500 m above the lower sandy plain to the south. It is about 150 km long. Today the area of the escarpment is inhabited by the Dogon people. Prior to the Dogon, the area was inhabited by the Tellem and Toloy peoples, and a number of Tellem structures have survived. The Bandiagara Escarpment was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1989. The Cliffs of Bandiagara are a 200 km long chain of sandstones stretching from south to northeast, which are of great archaeological, ethnological and geological interest. The cave-dwelling Tellem people lived on the slopes of the cliffs. The Tellem's heritage is well illustrated by the caves carved into the rock in which they buried their dead high up, away from the frequent floods of the area. Along the cliff there are dozens of villages, such as Kani Bonzon. Near this village, the Dogon arrived in the 14th century and spread from here to the plateau, the escarpment and the plains of Seno-Gondo. Nowadays you can visit the Dogon villages with a guide. A series of paths run along the cliffs, and in each village, there are hostels providing food and accommodation. To raise awareness of the problem of uncontrolled tourist traffic, the World Monuments Fund included the Bandiagara Escarpment on its 2004 World Monuments Watch list.