Fatou SAMB's Blog - Posts Tagged "dungar-palace"
Stone Castles of Medieval Africa: The Dungur Palace and the Architecture That Inspires Fairy Tales
Dear friends,
When most people imagine medieval Africa, they rarely picture multi-story stone palaces with underground passages and towering walls. Yet in Aksum (modern-day Ethiopia), the ruins of Dungur Palace - popularly called the "Palace of the Queen of Sheba" - tell a different story. Built with precisely fitted stone blocks, featuring over 50 rooms across multiple levels, this 6th-century structure rivals any European castle of its era.
Dungur is just one example of Africa's rich architectural heritage in stone. From the high-walled cosmopolitan city of Gao in the Songhai Empire to the fortress-cities of Zimbabwe, medieval Africa possessed a diverse tradition of monumental stone architecture that has been largely overlooked in popular imagination.
Bringing This Heritage to Life in Stories
When I was researching for Muneeb et Samiah: Fables et Contes de l'Afrique médiévale, discovering these architectural treasures felt like finding hidden gems. Here was proof that medieval Africa had the same grand settings that enchant us in fairy tales - the stone fortresses, the palace chambers, the towering walls where anything might happen.
In fairy tales, a castle is never just a building - it's a stage for transformation, romance, and magic. When Cinderella arrives at the ball, we don't need to know which specific castle it is. The castle exists as an idea, a symbol of entering another world. This is how I approached the settings in my fairy tales set in medieval Africa - drawing on real architectural traditions to create those archetypal spaces where stories unfold.
The Reality of Dungur Palace
The Dungur Palace ruins reveal sophisticated architectural planning. Archaeological evidence shows:
• A central pavilion surrounded by courtyards
• An elaborate water system with private bathing areas
• Stone staircases indicating multiple stories
• Underground chambers and passages
• Precisely carved stone blocks fitted without mortar
This wasn't just a fortress - it was a palace designed for beauty, comfort, and the kind of grandeur that makes perfect fairy tale settings where romance unfolds.
From Historical Inspiration to Timeless Tales
When I write about a lovely little stone fortress where the king and his court lived or lovers wandering through stone corridors with underground passages, these settings draw their authenticity from real places like Dungur. Not as historical documentation with specific names, but as imaginative inspiration - the same way every fairy tale castle carries echoes of real medieval architecture without being a specific castle.
Medieval Africa offers future storytellers a rich palette: the stone churches of Lalibela carved directly from volcanic rock, Djenné's distinctive Sudano-Sahelian architecture - from its famous mosque to its multi-story palaces and merchant houses, the ancient city walls of Benin. These monuments remind us that Africa has always been a continent of diverse architectural traditions, each offering unique settings for stories of wonder.
A New Chapter for Ancient Stories
The stories in Muneeb et Samiah unfold in settings that could have existed anywhere across medieval Africa – from stone palaces to hut villages to mysterious forests. These are the universal backdrops of fairy tales, made authentic by the knowledge that such places truly existed across the continent.
By sharing the reality of structures like Dungur Palace, I hope to expand readers' imagination of what medieval Africa looked like.
When we know that stone castles rose from African soil, that underground passages wound beneath African palaces, that towers reached toward African skies, we can dream new dreams. We can tell stories where archetypal characters of African heritage inhabit the same archetypal grandeur that has always belonged to fairy tales – because it was always there, waiting to be remembered.
Have you ever been to a castle that enchanted you ? Let me know in the comments below.
New stories every week ! Follow me for more hidden wonders and fairy tales magic ! ✨
À très bientôt !
Fatou
When most people imagine medieval Africa, they rarely picture multi-story stone palaces with underground passages and towering walls. Yet in Aksum (modern-day Ethiopia), the ruins of Dungur Palace - popularly called the "Palace of the Queen of Sheba" - tell a different story. Built with precisely fitted stone blocks, featuring over 50 rooms across multiple levels, this 6th-century structure rivals any European castle of its era.
Dungur is just one example of Africa's rich architectural heritage in stone. From the high-walled cosmopolitan city of Gao in the Songhai Empire to the fortress-cities of Zimbabwe, medieval Africa possessed a diverse tradition of monumental stone architecture that has been largely overlooked in popular imagination.
Bringing This Heritage to Life in Stories
When I was researching for Muneeb et Samiah: Fables et Contes de l'Afrique médiévale, discovering these architectural treasures felt like finding hidden gems. Here was proof that medieval Africa had the same grand settings that enchant us in fairy tales - the stone fortresses, the palace chambers, the towering walls where anything might happen.
In fairy tales, a castle is never just a building - it's a stage for transformation, romance, and magic. When Cinderella arrives at the ball, we don't need to know which specific castle it is. The castle exists as an idea, a symbol of entering another world. This is how I approached the settings in my fairy tales set in medieval Africa - drawing on real architectural traditions to create those archetypal spaces where stories unfold.
The Reality of Dungur Palace
The Dungur Palace ruins reveal sophisticated architectural planning. Archaeological evidence shows:
• A central pavilion surrounded by courtyards
• An elaborate water system with private bathing areas
• Stone staircases indicating multiple stories
• Underground chambers and passages
• Precisely carved stone blocks fitted without mortar
This wasn't just a fortress - it was a palace designed for beauty, comfort, and the kind of grandeur that makes perfect fairy tale settings where romance unfolds.
From Historical Inspiration to Timeless Tales
When I write about a lovely little stone fortress where the king and his court lived or lovers wandering through stone corridors with underground passages, these settings draw their authenticity from real places like Dungur. Not as historical documentation with specific names, but as imaginative inspiration - the same way every fairy tale castle carries echoes of real medieval architecture without being a specific castle.
Medieval Africa offers future storytellers a rich palette: the stone churches of Lalibela carved directly from volcanic rock, Djenné's distinctive Sudano-Sahelian architecture - from its famous mosque to its multi-story palaces and merchant houses, the ancient city walls of Benin. These monuments remind us that Africa has always been a continent of diverse architectural traditions, each offering unique settings for stories of wonder.
A New Chapter for Ancient Stories
The stories in Muneeb et Samiah unfold in settings that could have existed anywhere across medieval Africa – from stone palaces to hut villages to mysterious forests. These are the universal backdrops of fairy tales, made authentic by the knowledge that such places truly existed across the continent.
By sharing the reality of structures like Dungur Palace, I hope to expand readers' imagination of what medieval Africa looked like.
When we know that stone castles rose from African soil, that underground passages wound beneath African palaces, that towers reached toward African skies, we can dream new dreams. We can tell stories where archetypal characters of African heritage inhabit the same archetypal grandeur that has always belonged to fairy tales – because it was always there, waiting to be remembered.
Have you ever been to a castle that enchanted you ? Let me know in the comments below.
New stories every week ! Follow me for more hidden wonders and fairy tales magic ! ✨
À très bientôt !
Fatou
