Senegal River Gold Trade Route Established

By the 8th century, trans-Saharan trade routes connected the Bambuk goldfields at the confluence of the Falem and Senegal Rivers to North African and Mediterranean markets. The introduction of camels as pack animals and the expansion of Islamic caliphates across North Africa transformed sporadic gold exchanges into sustained commercial networks. Soninke merchants of the emerging Ghana Empire controlled gold distribution, acting as intermediaries between southern producers and Saharan salt traders, channeling West African gold northward through present-day Mauritania to Morocco.