Architecture

• • Builders integrated the concepts of the arch, the dome, and columns and aisles in their constructions.
• underground vaults and passages, as well as the rock-hewn churches, of Axum are matched in Nubia and Egypt with pyramids of various dimensions.
• Sahelian region, adobe, or dried clay, was preferred in the context of moulded contours, at times integrated with overall moulded sculpture.
• Permanent scaffolding made of protruding planks characterized the Malian region
• evaporative cooling was integrated into building design: mats were used as part of the decor and also to be saturated repeatedly in order to cool the room.
• Derelict ruins from walled cities—such as Kano, Zazzau, and other city-states of Hausaland in the central Sudanic region of West Africa—complement structures such as the rock-hewn and moulded churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia or the Zimbabwe enclosures