The tumuli of Cekeen are located in the Diourbel Department of the Diourbel Region. The Diourbel Region and the city of Diourbel were part of the precolonial Kingdom of Baol, now part of present-day Senegal.
In this area, a tumulus was used as a burial mound for chiefs. A deceased chief would be joined by other members of his court along with important objects such as furniture and other implements. [1] In this case, he and his escort would be situated in the chief's hut, whereupon the hut was buried with soil and rocks. Thousands of such tumuli exist in Senegal, but it is in Cekeen that the biggest and most densely scattered occur.
This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on November 18, 2005 in the Cultural category. [1]
The first written records of the region come from Arab traders in the 9th and 10th centuries. In medieval times, the region was dominated by the Trans-Saharan trade and was ruled by the Mali Empire. In the 16th century, the region came to be ruled by the Songhai Empire. The first Europeans to visit the Gambia River were the Portuguese in the 15th century, in 1447, who attempted to settle on the river banks, but no settlement of significant size was established. Descendants of the Portuguese settlers remained until the 18th century. In the late 16th century, English merchants attempted to begin a trade with the Gambia, reporting that it was "a river of secret trade and riches concealed by the Portuguese."
The Government of Senegal is the union government created by the constitution of Senegal, consisting of the executive, parliament, and judiciary. The Seat of the Government is located in Dakar. The government is led by the president.
The Senegambia is, in the narrow sense, a historical name for a geographical region in West Africa, named after the Senegal River in the north and the Gambia River in the south. However, there are also text sources which state that Senegambia is understood in a broader sense and equated with the term the Western region. This refers to the coastal areas between Senegal and Sierra Leone, where the inland border in the east was not further defined.
The Gambia River is a major river in West Africa, running 1,120 kilometres (700 mi) from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigable for about half that length.
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or kurgans, and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built for various purposes, may also originally have been a tumulus.
Karabük Province is a landlocked province in the northern part of Anatolia, located about 200 km (124 mi) north of Ankara, 115 km (71 mi) away from Zonguldak and 113 km (70 mi) away from Kastamonu. Its area is 4,142 km2, and its population is 252,058 (2022). The main city is Karabük which is located about 100 km (62 mi) south of the Black Sea coast.
The Senegambian stone circles or the Wassu stone circles are groups of megalithic stone circles that lie in The Gambia north of Janjanbureh and in central Senegal. Spread across a region 30,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi), they are sometimes divided into the Wassu (Gambian) and Sine-Saloum (Senegalese) circles, but this is purely a national division. Containing over 1000 stone circles and tumuli spread across an area 350 km (220 mi) long and 100 km (62 mi) wide, the Senegambian stone circles are the largest concentration of stone circles seen anywhere in the world and an extensive sacred landscape that was used for more than 1500 years. As a result, the sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2006.
The Diourbel Region is a region of Senegal with 2,080,811 inhabitants (2023). The regional capital is the city of Diourbel, and the largest city is Touba. The region corresponds roughly to the precolonial Kingdom of Bawol and is still called by that name. Bawol is an ancient kingdom formerly ruled by the Joof family, one of the members of the Serer ethnic group found in Senegambia. Inhabitants of the area are called Bawol-Bawol which takes its name from the Serer mode of pluralisation, other examples being : Sine-Sine or Siin-Siin, Saloum-Saloum, etc. The population is primarily comprised by the Serer people especially those from the Cangin group, the Safene in particular. The Serers are believed to be the original inhabitants of this area. The Wolof and other ethnic groups are also present. The Diourbel Region is rich in history and it is where the Cekeen Tumulus are located. Scholars such as Charles Becker, Henry Gravrand, and Victor Martin suggest that these monuments were built by the Serer people and form part of the Serer tumulus of Baol. They are some of the most sacred sites in Serer religion. The Département of Mbacke also includes Murid Islamic Sufi order's holy city of Touba. The installation of this order in Serer country is a controversial one, especially among those Serers who adhere to the tenets of Serer religion (see Serer history. However, some Serers are also Muslims and have headed this religious order.
Kofun are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Northeast Asia. Kofun were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century AD.
Radiodiffusion Télévision Sénégalaise (RTS) is the Senegalese public broadcasting company.
Bambey Department is one of the 45 departments of Senegal, one of the three making up the Diourbel Region.
Mbacké Department is one of the 45 departments of Senegal, and one of the three constituting the Diourbel Region.
The Serer people are a West African ethnoreligious group. They are the third-largest ethnic group in Senegal, making up 15% of the Senegalese population. They are also found in northern Gambia and southern Mauritania.
Saloum Delta National Park or Parc National du Delta du Saloum in Senegal, is a 760-square-kilometre (190,000-acre) national park. Established in 1976, it is situated within the Saloum Delta at the juncture of the Saloum River and the North Atlantic.
The Mozu Tombs are a group of kofun —megalithic tombs—in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Originally consisting of more than 100 tombs, only less than 50% of the key-hole, round, and rectangular tombs remain.
Furuichi kofungun (古市古墳群) is a group of Kofun period burial mounds located in the cities of Fujiidera and Habikino, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Twelve of the tumuli in this group were individually designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1956, with an additional 14 collectively added to the designation in 2001, and the area under protection expanded in 2018.
The prehistoric and ancient history of the Serer people of modern-day Senegambia has been extensively studied and documented over the years. Much of it comes from archaeological discoveries and Serer tradition rooted in the Serer religion.
This is a timeline of the history and development of Serer religion and the Serer people of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania. This timeline merely gives an overview of their history, consisting of calibrated archaeological discoveries in Serer countries, Serer religion, politics, royalty, etc. Dates are given according to the Common Era. For a background to these events, see Roog, Serer religion, Serer creation myth, Serer prehistory, Lamane, States headed by Serer Lamanes, Serer history and Serer people.
The Tsuyazaki Kofun Cluster (津屋崎古墳群) is a Kofun period burial mound, located in Fukutsu, Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture Japan. The tumulus was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2000.
  | This African history–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article about a building or structure in Senegal is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
