Editing Mali Empire (section)

=== Salt ===
[[File:Targui8.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Tuaregs]] were and still are an integral part of the salt trade across the Sahara.]]

Salt, another critical trade good, was as valuable, if not more valuable, than gold in [[sub-Saharan Africa]]. It was cut into pieces and spent on goods with close to equal buying power throughout the empire.<ref name="Blanchard, page 1115">{{harvnb|Blanchard|2001|p=1115}}.</ref> While it was as good as gold in the north, it was even better in the south,  as it was rare there.{{citation needed|date=October 2013}} Every year merchants entered Mali via Oualata with camel loads of salt to sell in the capital. Ibn Battuta had written that in [[Taghaza]], one of Mali's most important salt mines, there were no trees, only sand and the salt mines. Nobody lived in the area except the Musafa servants who sug the salt and lived on dates imported from [[Sijilmasa]] and the [[Draa River|Dar'a valley]], camel meat and [[millet]] imported from the [[Sudan (region)|Sudan]]. The buildings were constructed from slabs of salt and roofed with camel skins. The salt was dug from the ground and cut into thick slabs, two of which were loaded onto each camel where they would be taken south across the desert to Oualata and sold. The value of the salt was chiefly determined by the transport costs. According to Ibn Battuta one camel load of salt sold at Walata for 8–10 ''mithqals'' of gold, but in Mali proper it was worth 20–30 [[ducats]] and sometimes even 40.<ref name="Blanchard, page 1115"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=414, note 5}}.</ref>