Djenné is a city in Mali. About 33,000 people lived there in 2009. The city lies on an island, and is known for the Great Mosque of Djenné. People have lived there since about the year 800 CE.It is a Songhai town and urban commune in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali, The commune includes ten of the surrounding villages and in 2009 had a population of 32,944. The history of Djenné is closely linked with that of Timbuktu. Between the 15th and 17th centuries much of the trans-Saharan trade in goods such as salt, gold, and slaves that moved in and out of Timbuktu passed through Djenné.