Tondidarou

{{Infobox settlement

|name = Tondidarou

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|settlement_type =Town

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|pushpin_map =Mali

|pushpin_label_position =bottom

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|pushpin_map_caption =Location in Mali

|subdivision_type = Country

|subdivision_name = {{flag|Mali}}

|subdivision_type1 = Region

|subdivision_name1 = Tombouctou Region

|subdivision_type2 =Cercle

|subdivision_name2 = Niafunké

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|timezone =GMT

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Tondidarou is a small town and megalithic archaeological site in Niafunké Cercle, Timbuktu Region, Mali, northwest of Niafunké, about 150 kilometres south-west of Timbuktu.{{cite book|last=Mokhtar|first=G.|title=General History of Africa: Ancient civilizations of Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B3LNzqo5i0IC&pg=PA523|accessdate=12 July 2012|year=1981|publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-92-3-101708-7|page=523}} The site, located on the eastern bank of Lac Tagadji, was discovered by Jules Brévié in 1904 and is said to be "defined by three groups of stone megaliths", monoliths which are a "remarkable collection of phalliform stone monuments."{{cite book|last=Sottas|first=Beat|title=Forum suisse des africanistes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nDFCWY8THBUC&pg=PA69|accessdate=12 July 2012|year=1997|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-8258-3506-4|page=69}}{{cite book|last=Ki-Zerbo|first=Joseph|title=General History of Africa: Methodology and African prehistory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TaegVuj0bNUC&pg=PA630|accessdate=12 July 2012|year=1981|publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-92-3-101707-0|page=630}} Ancient Egypt in Africa refers to the site as "Diop's 'Egypt-influenced' phalliform stone circle of Tondidarou".{{cite book|last1=O'Connor|first1=David|last2=Reid|first2=Andrew|title=Ancient Egypt in Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zn3ViO-Vj-4C&pg=PA104|accessdate=12 July 2012|date=August 2003|publisher=Cavendish Publishing|isbn=978-1-84314-758-9|page=104}} Eugene Maes was the first to seriously document the stones at Tondidarou in 1924.{{cite book|author=Smithsonian Institution. Libraries. National Museum of African Art Branch|title=The arts of Africa: an annotated bibliography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5rrAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=12 July 2012|year=1989|publisher=African Studies Association|page=128}} It was extensively excavated in around 1980.{{cite book|last=Fage|first=J. D.|title=The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1050|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wHVGrxdt2X4C&pg=PA341|accessdate=12 July 2012|date=1 February 1979|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-21592-3|page=341}} The site is dated to 670 - 790 AD.