Black and white photograph, James Morris

Mosque, Komio, Mali, 2000.

This beautiful mosque was built of adobe brick and mud in the 20th century, and is part of the architectural style called Butabu. While an ephemeral structure by almost any archaeological standards, this mosque has all the important structural elements required of a mosque--and it is cool in the summer heat.

• Komio Mosque, on ArchNet
• Butabu: West African Adobe Buildings, more on the fascinating beauty of Butabu architecture
• Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa, Photographs by James Morris, an exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology