Ghana+Place

In this page, we will be talking about the Ghana's Empire Place. It will talk about Human and Physical things about the Ghana Empire.
=__**Human:**__=

Government:
The Ghana Empire was ruled by a king called Ghana. That is why the empire was called Ghana Empire. He had good military power and he was the supreme judge. He conquered local [|chieftains] and got tribute from subordinate states.

Architecture:[[image:79.18sm.jpg align="right"]]
They made many statues and figures in Ghana Empire such as warrior figures, masks, female figues, and animals. Each of these figures symbolized something, like the female figures, with their large breasts and wide hips representing essential strength, vitality, and fertility of a woman. The warrior figures represented a brave warrior. They use masks for different things. In one ceremony, men use masks to play the role or a women. Animals were shown for their beauty and fine quality but also for their [|potent] symbolism. Houses in Ghana were built of wood and clay, but the wealthier and important people lived in homes or wood and stone.

Pictures from: http://www.dia.org/collections/aonwc/africanart/africanart.html

Economy:
Rivers were important to Ghanaians because their economy was based on trade, and rivers were their fastest way to carry goods. In the beginning of the 700's, from the [|Arabic world], camels brought products across the Sahara desert just to go to Ghana's markets. They brought many things such as books, salt, [|textiles], and tools. These goods were traded for gold, ivory, and slaves. After that, Ghana had about 30,000 people. The trading in Ghana was inhabited almost entirely by Arab and [|Berber] merchants. The majority of them were Muslims. Ghana was a rich empire; however they never had any goldfields. They traded their salt for gold in an area in the south called Wangara. The people there were called Wangarans. They also got their gold by collecting taxes from traders who passed through the kingdom. Ghana had an advantage that neighbouring kingdoms didn’t have, the ability to use iron weapons. They used iron weapons to control trading of gold between West and North Africa and to subdue their neighbouring kingdoms.

Religion:
Ghanaians believed in 1 god who created the world and less important gods who ruled over their daily lives. They believed that disasters could be avoided by pleasing gods with rituals and prayers. Although Ghanaians had their own religion, there were many Muslims living in Ghana, but they did not convert into the Islamic religion. The strange things is that the Ghanaian court allowed Muslims to settle in the cities and they encouraged the Muslim specialists to help the royal court administer the government and advise on legal matters. In El-Ghaba, the part in Kumbi Saleh I was telling you about before, contained a sacred grove of trees for the Soninke religious rites.

Transportation:
For most of the African countries and kingdoms, Ghana's main transportation was a camels and walking to travel around.

=__**Physical**__=

Relative Location:
They were many rivers and other kingdoms close to the Ghana kingdom. The kingdoms that were close to Ghana were: Wolof kingdom, Mali kingdom, Songhai kingdom, Ashanti kingdom, and Yoruba kingdom. The desert next to Ghana is the Sahara desert. The rivers next to Ghana are the Senegal and Niger River.

This picture is from: http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/images/kingdoms.jpg

Animal Life:
They were many animals in Ghana used for many different things like the camel is used for transportation and transporting goods. In the 12th century, sheep, cows, and goats were abundant in Ghana.

Landforms:
Kumbi Saleh, a major part was El-Ghaba, which was protected by a stone wall and functioned as the royal and spiritual capital of the Empire. In here, there was the King's palace, the grandest structures in the city.

=Bibliography:=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kingdom_of_Ghana http://www.ghana.co.uk/history/history/ancient_ghana.htm http://www.reference.com/search?q=Ghana http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee?CIVAFRCA/GHANA.HTM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_empire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almoravid#Ghana_Empire http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9036657/Ghana http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?id=ar223070&st=ghana+empire http://www.mrdowling.com/609-ghana.html http://www.dia.org/collections/aonwc/africanart/africanart.html The Encyclopaedia of World History Philip's Encyclopaedia comprehensive edition 2003