The Rock Hyrax resembles a large rabbit, but in internal anatomy are related to both horses and elephants. Hyraxes are found in The Sahara desert and parts of the Middle East. Rock Hyraxes live on the ground; they feed on vegetation. The hyrax is 31 to 55 cm in length. The head is thick and pointed, with short, rounded ears and a short neck. The body is squat, with short sturdy legs and, in some species, a short tail. The feet, which are equipped with soft, elastic pads for climbing, have hoof-like claws; each forefoot has four toes, and each hind foot has three.

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Plants in the Dogon Area:

The Baobab Tree

The baobab tree is native to the Sahara Desert and grows to the height of a large oak tree, but extensive growth makes it one of the largest trees. The trunk of the baobab sometimes have a diameter of 9 m, and the branches, frequently as thick as the trunks of other large trees, form a mass of foliage often 45 m in diameter. The large white flowers are pollinated by bats. The fruit, called monkey bread, is about the size of a small melon; the pulp, which has a pleasing acid taste, is used in the preparation of cooling drinks. The bark of the tree yields a strong cordage fibre. The baobab is now cultivated in many countries throughout the world.

The Daum Palm

The Daum Palm is found in nearly all of Africa, having a 15 metre slender trunk and smooth branches, each tipped with a rosette of small, stiff, green, fanlike leaves. The palm produces Daum nuts, very similar to the taste of gingerbread, with a colouring of red-orange.

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Food Web of the Dogon:

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Housing:

The Dogon people live in mud-brick houses, with some that look like a giant sand castle, and very often have a flat roof so they can sleep on their roofs during the scorching summer. The village, is consists of many houses, shaped of a human body.

Left: The very elaborate of Dogon housing
Left: A typical Dogon house Left: A Dogon town

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Clothing:

The Dogon tribe wear normal clothes such as cloth dresses, jackets, robes, skirts similar to what you would see today. The dogon dancers wear very elaborate clothing, which consists of a red/black straw skirt, shell bodice, and a very unique mask, in which it represents an animal, and is worn for spiritual purposes.

Left: The elaborate clothing of the Dogon

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Tools:

The Dogon people mostly use their hands but occasionally use flat rock to pave the mud brick houses they also use local clay to create their magnificent pottery. for hunting they use shotguns made of wood, metal and gunpowder and spears made of sharpened sticks.

Left: A Dogon hunter using a shotgun to get food.

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How do the Dogon people get water?:

In deserts, their is water, underground. This is an artesian wall, where it holds fresh water. The Dogon have made wells burrowing down into artesian walls, to get water via the well. This provides just enough water to survive.

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Adaptations of the Dogon people:

The Dogon people are very well-adapted to desert life. Some adaptations are:

• Keeping cool

  The Dogon people cannot live under 40 degrees heat all day, they can go inside where the mud-brick houses creates insulation, so then their houses are much much cooler, and when it is colder, the house is warmer.

• Where's the food

  Trying to find food in the desert is very hard and the Dogon hardly ever hunt. Instead, since they have the facility of artesian walls, where they can water and grow crops such as beans, onions, sorghum and millet, which they eat and drink. For example millet can be fermented in to millet beer which is a very popular drink among the Dogon's.

• Rooftop sleeping

  The Dogon people, when they feel like it they sleep on the roofs of their houses, to escape the heat because the surface of the mud-brick is cool.

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Map of the Dogon area:

Vegetation Map:-


Elevation map:-



Dogon in relation to the world:-



Neighbouring countries:-

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Climate and Physical Features:

The Dogon Area- Minimum and Maximum temperatures

month

average maximum temperatures in degrees Celsius

average minimum temperatures in degrees Celsius

average # of days / month of measurable precipitation

humidity

January	31	13	0	31
February	34	14	0	26
March	38	19	1	26
April	42	22	0	21
May	43	26	2	26
June	43	27	5	43

July	39	25	9	60
August	36	24	9	70
September	39	24	5	61
October	40	23	2	37
November	37	18	0	27
December	32	13	0	27

Weather Map of 8/10/00:

Explanation of Weather Map:

A line of thunderstorm activity extends across Central Africa from West to east. These thunderstorms are cause by the interaction between the High and Low pressure zones to the North and South of these thunderstorms. Most of this thunderstorm activity occurs in the Equatorial zone and movement of air streams in the northern and southern Hemispheres keeps this activity localised. Thus for most of the year the Dogon environment suffers a drought, thereby very little rain.

Wind:
The Dogon area hardly ever receives wind. If they do they receive hot dust/sand storms which circulate the area.

Landforms:
The Landforms in the dogon area is the Bandiagara Escarpment, the plateau and the plains. Scattered around the area are rocky outcrops and buttes.

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Customs of the Dogon people:

Each large district has a hogon, or spiritual leader; and there is a supreme hogon for the whole country. In his dress and behaviour the hogon symbolises the Dogon myth of creation, to which the Dogon relate much of their social organization and culture. Their metaphysical system--which categorises physical objects, personifies good and evil, and defines the spiritual principles of the Dogon personality--is more abstract than that of most other African peoples. The climax of Dogon religious life occurs every 60 years, in a ceremony called the sigui. It occurs when the star Sirius appears between two mountain peaks. Before the ceremony, young men go into seclusion for three months, during which they talk in secret language. The general ceremony rests on the belief that some 3,000 years ago amphibious beings from Sirius visited the Dogon. Fewer than half the Dogon are Muslim, and fewer still are Christian. Most practice traditional religion.

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Beliefs: Dogon and the star:

Some people believe the Dogon had contact with extraterrestrials some 5,000 years ago. The aliens, known as the Nommos, were supposedly ugly and amphibious, who came here for some unknown reason from a planet orbiting Sirius some 46,000,000,000 miles from earth. The alleged visitors from outer space seem to have done little else than give the earthlings some astronomical information, however, some of it has been shown to be incorrect. The Dogon claim to have had great astronomical knowledge, knowing that the star, Sirius, had a companion, naked to the human eye, which is now called today Sirius B. They stated that its elliptic orbit took 50 years to complete. Scientists discovered that Sirius B's orbit took 50.2 years to complete. Marcel Griuale lived and studied with the Dogon people for 16 years and at the end of 16 years, 4 priests of the Dogon Tribe, took him in a house and told him the special teachings of the Dogon people. It is these teachings that have been the basis of the stories of the Nommos. Griuale was so highly respected among the Dogon when he died a couple of years later, 250,000 Dogon came to his religious funeral. But how could the Dogon see the star, Sirius B, which is naked to the human eye, with no means of telescopes, binoculars or any other type of modern technology? Well this may be the answer. Afrocentist, F.C.Welsing said in a Melanin Conference San Francisco on September 16-17 in 1987, that Africans have special powers due to the quantities of melanin that allow them to see things that white man cannot. They seem to also have knowledge of the satellites of Jupiter and rings of Saturn, among other things. Where did they get this knowledge, he asks, if not from extraterrestrial visitors? They don't have telescopes or other scientific equipment, so how could they get this knowledge? But was Marcel Griaule lying, telling the truth or simply mistaken? Who will be the next one to find out about the Dogon's astronomical beliefs?

Left: An artists interpretation of Nommos.

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Webliography:

• Altavista Web Search
• Altavista Image Search
• MSN Web Search
• Britannica Web & Encyclopedia Search
• Dog pile Web Search
• Google Web Search
• www.aalbc.com./thedogon.htm
• www.anatomy.com
• www.wcmc.org.uk/protected-areas/data/wh/bandiagara.html
• www.animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/
• Encarta Reference Suite 2000
• Corbis.com
• http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Weather/weather_Mali.html
• www.cnn.com
• Seriously Wierd True Stories 2

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Photo Album:

All of these photos have something to do with the Dogon Tribe!

Left: The cliff on which the Dogon liveLeft: Another way of viewing the cliffs
Left: Ten Dogon DancersLeft: Cows belonging to the Dogon Tribe in a house's backyard
Left: Dogon cows going somewhereLeft: A semi-domestic crocodile belonging to the Dogon
Left: A Dogon DanceLeft: Dogon granaries
Left: A Dogon DancerLeft: Another Dogon Dancer
Left: Ancient Dogon houses found in caveLeft: The quick moves of a Dogon Dancer
Left: Yet another Dogon Dancer

Left: A Dogon military doorLeft: A Dogon collecting fish from their annual fishing trip
Left: Another Dogon houseLeft: Yet another Dogon house
Left: Even another Dogon houseLeft: A Dogon hunting for food with a spear
Left: A Dogon maleLeft: Another Dogon male
Left: A Dogon Mother and Infant
Left: A Dogon on stiltsLeft: Another Dogon on stilts
Left: Dogon behind smokeLeft: A Dogon gorge
Left: A view of what the Dogon seeLeft: A Dogon warrior
Left: Another Dogon warriorLeft: A Dogon writing on the hot desert sand
Left: A Dogon DanceLeft: A Dogon at a fire
Left: Dogon at sunset
Left: Dogons giving other Dogons horseback rides???Left: Dogons sitting in a circle
Left: Yet another Dogon on stilts
Left: Skulls of the deceased DogonLeft: A Dogon Dancer showing off
Left: Dogon Door of WomanhoodLeft: Dogon ladders
Left: A line of DogonLeft: A community of Dogon
Left: A strange DogonLeft: A teenage male Dogon