The 17-meter-high struc­ture is built in the Sudano-Sahe­lian style using mud and wood brought from Mec­ca. The com­plex includes the pyra­mi­dal tomb, two mosques, a ceme­tery, and an open-air assem­bly ground. It was built after the emper­or returned from pil­grim­age, when Islam became the offi­cial reli­gion of the empire.

The dra­mat­ic 17‑m pyra­mi­dal struc­ture of the Tomb of Ask­ia was built by Ask­ia Mohamed, the Emper­or of Song­hai, in 1495 in his cap­i­tal Gao. It bears tes­ti­mo­ny to the pow­er and rich­es of the empire that flour­ished in the 15th and 16th cen­turies through its con­trol of the trans-Saha­ran trade, notably in salt and gold. It is also a fine exam­ple of the mon­u­men­tal mud-build­ing tra­di­tions of the West African Sahel. The com­plex, includ­ing the pyra­mi­dal tomb, two flat-roofed mosque build­ings, the mosque ceme­tery and the open-air assem­bly ground, was built when Gao became the cap­i­tal of the Song­hai Empire and after Ask­ia Mohamed had returned from Mec­ca and made Islam the offi­cial reli­gion of the empire.