Human Interest

The location of the hotel makes a lot of sense. Mecca is an obvious tourist destination. Muslims from all over the world, make the sacred pilgrimage to the holy city. Those same people, are in need of accommodations once they arrive in the city. The economic potential of such a hotel is outstanding. It was also interesting to learn that Las Vegas currently has four of the five largest hotels in the world. Even with the building of this hotel, I do not see Las Vegas being displaced as the worlds premier tourist destination.

this is hardly surprising, with how many people go to Mecca in a year. Mecca is probably the largest single destination for religious tourism in the world, and it is the only city on earth where there are religious obligations to enter the city .

it is horrifying that a government could force people to live in abject poverty and that the only source of income in this area is a tourist trap that needs to be rebuilt every few years in its entirety.

This video shows a great reflection towards how important culture is to the people living in this African region. The people of the region live in buildings that are made out of mud bricks. From the houses, to stores, to the monuments located here, are practically all made of mud. The most interesting part of this that these buildings can not be modernized at all. This is very dangerous considering that the Great Mosque has to be recovered quite often due to the rain. It is important to analyzing how dangerous these living conditions can be and how the money that is being made in this touristic area, is not being used to efficiently provide buildings made of mud, but rather to simple repair the mosques. The importance of the tourism is what helps the people in the town financial but it affects everyone living in this area because it is surrounded by poverty, and should be provided to guide the people in better safe building. 

This major tourist attraction site is very interesting, a mosque made of just mud. Everything is mud besides the mosque, business and individual homes. So unfortunately for the citizens, this is not a great place to live. Since this place is historic, outside sources such as the UN do not really want to help the people out because they want the city of Djenne to be preserved as a historic site and they want everything to be as if it was ages ago, they will not even allow interior redesign. It seems though as if the only money they will ever receive is pretty much tourist money,  They do want to modernize, but in a way that keeps the history visible. they have failed to modernize in other sectors, such as garbage disposal. their garage is destroying their water which is running through their streets and making the water quality bad, which in turn, makes the mud quality bad for building.