Gao-Saney is a medieval town located 6 km from the city of Gao. The site of Gao-Saney became
known to African historians after French officials discovered a sand-covered cave in 1939 that housed
many intricately carved marble slabs originating in Almeria, southern Spain.
Since 2001, additional excavations carried out on the site have exposed mud-brick structures, and clods of earth and revealed the presence of significant archaeological material consisting of objects of local manufacture (pottery, iron objects, terracotta, and bone beads) and foreign manufacture (copper objects, glass beads, glass containers), attesting to the wealth of Gao and its role as a metropolis of trans-Saharan trade between the 7th and the end of the 16th century.
The archaeological site of Gao Saney was the ground for a population that consisted of merchants and manufacturers from North Africa from the eighth to the tenth centuries. Excavations have uncovered large buildings made completely of stone in Gao city.
The buildings were presumably a royal residence protected by a big castle, constructed at the beginning of the tenth century only to be abandoned toward the end of the same century. The excavations have thus confirmed, for the first time, the very existence of the twin cities of Gao, mentioned by Arabic writers of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The site holds a great historical and archaeological universal value as it is representative of an important period in the history of Mali and West Africa.
