In 1352 the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta arrived in Taghaza after a 25 day journey from Sijilmasa on his way across the Sahara to Oualata to visit the Mali Empire.
Oualata |
In the French translation of the Tarikh al-fattash published in 1913, Octave Houdas and Maurice Delafosse include a footnote in which they comment that local tradition also suggested that the first capital of Kayamagna was at Koumbi and that the town was in the Ouagadougou region, northeast of Goumbou on the road leading from Goumbou to Néma and Oualata.
Nema is close to the Malian border and there is constant traffic, either heading south to Mali via Adel Bagrou, East to Bassikounou and Léré (Mali) or north to the ancient town of Oualata (pronounced Walata).