Essouk (Arabic: السوق : "the market") is a commune and small village in the Kidal Region of Mali.

The ruins of the medieval town of Tadmakka (Arabic: تادمكة) lie 2 km northeast of the present village.

[4] The town prospered between the 9th and 15th centuries as an important entrepôt for caravans—a place where they could prepare for, or recover from, the hardest stretch of the Saharan journey.

The earliest mention to Tadmakka is found in Ibn Hawqal's Kitab Surat al-ard ("The Picture of the Earth" ), written in three successive versions between 967 and 988.

Traders in Tadmekka would have had commercial links with North African towns such as Tahert and Ouargla where there were Ibadi communities.

[10][11] The medieval town was spread in a north–south direction between two chains of rocky hills that run parallel to each other on either side of a wadi.

[14] Of the three areas of the town investigated, the most complete stratigraphic sequence was obtained at a location opposite the island on the eastern side of the wadi.

The archaeological site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on September 8, 1999, in the Cultural category.