Forget the tech billionaires of today, the richest man to ever live was an African king by the name of Mansa Musa, the ruler of the Malian Empire from 1312 to 1337. His wealth was so vast that when he made his pilgrimage to Mecca, he had an entourage to tens of thousands of soldiers, slaves and heralds all draped in silk and carrying golden staffs. He left the streets of Cairo littered with gold for the poor which caused mass inflation. It would take the city decades to fully recover from this currency crisis.

"There's really no way to put an accurate number on his wealth"- TIME Magazine