An interesting motorcycle travel blog

[docnet]

Here's a travel blog by a couple from Estonia, who ride their BMW motorcycle 200,000km and to 85 countries around the world. Proper photographs included!
https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/from-estonia-with-love-round-the-world.480532/

 

[berkeman]

I wonder what that thing is...

 

[docnet]

I wonder what that thing is...

View attachment 344772

If I remember correctly (it's hard to find the original photo among the 165 pages ) Margus & Karina (the bloggers) didn't know either. But a google search for 'sticks in building walls in africa' turned up this. It's a town hall in Mali, and 'the wooden poles that poke out of the sides of the buildings are used instead of ladders to make it easier for masons to climb up and down the buidings during construction and reconstuction.'

Edit: it's a mosque.

 

[Baluncore]

I wonder what that thing is...

My guess would be that it is a Muslim minaret. The loudspeaker, visible on one wall, would be used for the call to prayer, reducing the need for the muezzin to ascend and descend the structure five times each day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhan

The shape of the structure is designed to shed water from the mud surface if, or when, it rains. The sticks are the permanent access for construction and maintenance.

One interesting thing to look for, if you ever have the opportunity, would be a specific endemic soil algae or similar, that grows in the damp mud. That gives the mud structure, and makes the structure hydrophobic.

 

[Jacobes]

i really love it !!