Mbacke

Mbacké is a historic town in the Diourbel region of central Senegal, founded in 1796 by Mame Maram Muhammad al-Khayri, the great-grandfather of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, the founder of the Mouride Sufi brotherhood. During the first half of the 19th century it was a recognised centre of Islamic learning. Ahmadou Bamba founded the nearby holy city of Touba in 1887, and the two towns have since grown into a single contiguous urban agglomeration — together the second-largest in Senegal after greater Dakar. From the 1970s onward, Touba's rapid growth as the Mourides' autonomous holy city (with more favourable taxation and land arrangements) drew many of Mbacké's banks and commercial establishments away, and today Mbacké functions largely as an administrative and residential town adjacent to Touba rather than a commercial centre in its own right.

By Plane

Dakar Blaise Diagne International Airport (DSS) is the nearest international airport.

By Car / Road

Mbacké is reached by road from Dakar and is directly contiguous with Touba.

• The town itself, as the historic seedbed of the Mouride brotherhood before Touba's founding.

• Touba — the Mourides' holy city and site of the Grand Mosque, directly adjoining Mbacké.