Mansa Musa was the ruler of the kingdom of Mali from 1312 C.E. to 1337 C.E. During his reign, the Mali Empire became the largest and richest empire in Africa. When he wasn’t enjoying his riches and the company of his four wives, Mansa Musa was busy using the vast deposits of natural gold on his land to turn the kingdom into a centre of learning for the Islamic world.

A figure of stupendous wealth, Mansa Musa’s net worth would equate to around $400 billion in today’s value. For context, that’s more than Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos’ net worth put together. When travelling, he had an entourage of 60,000 people carrying supplies, 500 slaves each carrying a gold staff and 80 – 100 camels each carrying 300 pounds of gold dust.