According to all appearance, the mosque consisted originally of a low building, flanked on the east and west side by a large tower, the whole courtyard being surrounded by a wall about eight feet in height. The eastern tower is in ruins, but the western one is still tolerably well preserved, though its proportions are extremely heavy. It rises in seven terraces, which gradually decrease in diameter, so that while the lowest measures from forty to fifty feet on each side, the highest does not appear to exceed fifteen. The inhabitants still offer their prayers in this sacred place, where their great conqueror, Háj Mohammed, is interred, although they have not sufficient energy to repair the whole. The east quarter of the mosque evidently was formerly the most frequented and best inhabited part of the town, and is entirely girded with a thick grove of siwák bushes, which covers all the uninhabited part of the former city. The town, in its most flourishing period, seems to have had a circumference of about six miles. According to the statement of Leo[37], it appears never to have been surrounded by a wall. The dwellings in general do not seem to have been distinguished by their style of architecture, with the exception of the residence of the king, although even that was of such a description that the Bashá Jódar, on conquering the town, wrote to inform his master, Múláy e’ Dhéhebi, that the house of the Sheikh el Harám, in Morocco, was much better than the palace of the Áskia.[38] When I returned to my tent from this my first excursion, I found a great crowd of men assembled there, but was unable to make the acquaintance of any one who might give me some information about the place, and, on the whole, I did not succeed in entering into any amicable relations with the inhabitants of Gógó. Their sullen behaviour seems to be accounted for by the fact, as I shall mention further on, that they had behaved rather treacherously towards the Christian who had visited this place some fifty years before. I endeavoured also, although in vain, to buy Indian corn, from the inhabitants, although it was perhaps the fear of the Tawárek which made them deny that they had any. Thus I found myself reduced to the necessity of providing myself with a supply of úzak, or eníti, that is to say, the seeds of the _Pennisetum distichum_, which is generally used as an article of food by the Tawárek, my horses having fared very badly for some time.