Mansa Musa was the tenth 'Mansa' (Sultan) of the Mali Empire, which was the largest producer of gold in the world during the Middle Ages. He is often cited as the wealthiest individual in human history. He became legendary for his Hajj to Mecca in 1324, during which he traveled with a caravan of tens of thousands of people and dozens of camels laden with gold. In Cairo, he gave away so much gold that the value of the metal crashed for over a decade. Musa used his wealth to turn Timbuktu into a major Islamic center of learning, commissioning the famous Djinguereber Mosque and founding the University of Sankore. His reign demonstrated the immense power and sophistication of West African empires, putting Mali on the map—literally—for European cartographers.