Unlike what many of you might think, bill gates was not the richest man, not even close. The richest man alive is Jeff Bezos, with 118 billion dollars according to Bloomberg. But that pales in comparison with the richest man ever. He was born the son of Faga Laye in the 1280s and though no one knows his exact wealth, people guess it would be over 500 billion, with estimates ranging from 400 billion to 800 billion. That's almost 7 Jeffs! One famous story was when Mansa Musa traveled across the desert with his caravan, he gave enough gifts of gold to cause huge inflation in Timbuktu and affect the price of gold greatly, that's how powerful moneywise or should I say pennywise :-) he was. If you know of anyone richer or have any questions, leave a comment below. Thanks!