Bandiagara Escarpment

The Bandiagara Escarpment is a sandstone cliff line in the Dogon country of Mali, rising roughly 500 meters above the sandy flats to its south and running for approximately 150 kilometers, with the broader sandstone chain it belongs to extending over 200 kilometers toward the Grandamia massif and Hombori Tondo, Mali's highest peak. The escarpment displays dramatic erosional architecture carved by wind and water over long periods, and its cliff face holds ancient dwellings built into the rock by earlier inhabitants of the region. Seasonal flash floods off the escarpment have long shaped where and how people settle at its base. This entity documents the Bandiagara Escarpment specifically as a geological formation, the sandstone cliff itself, distinct from the divinity atlas's coverage of the same location as a center of Dogon religious and cultural life.