DJENNE GLOBULAR TERRACOTTA BURIAL VESSEL The vast flood prone region that begins north of Segou and spreads out as far as Mopti and Timbuktu is known as the Inland Niger Delta. This area linked Africa with the Mediterranean Coast and was, since earliest times the route of the caravans, it was a very important link. After the 1400's this area or state began to lose the territories to the north such as Timbuktu, Gao and Djenne, and were subsequently conquered by the Songhai ruler Sonni Ali Ber, his successors were zealous moslems. During this period of Islamization, however, this region saw the development of an art that was extraordinary, purely traditional and non-Islamic. Objects of metalwork and terracottas have been unearthed from these areas, and the mystery surrounding their conception has not yet been explained nor understood.