In 1324 the emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa, began a legendary pilgrimage to Mecca that stunned the medieval world. Traveling with tens of thousands of followers and caravans of camels loaded with gold, ...

Mansa Musa ruled the Mali Empire in the 1320s, controlling the riches of West Africa's gold mines. But, rich as he was, little is known about him, and even those accounts are contradictory. Here's ...