Essouk is a commune and small village in the Kidal Region of Mali. The village lies 45 km northwest of Kidal in the Adrar des Ifoghas massif. The ruins of the medieval town of Tadmekka (or Tadmakka) lie 2 km northeast of the present village. Between the 9th and the 15th centuries Tadmekka served as an important entrepôt for the trans-Saharan trade.The commune is very large in area but sparsely populated. The 2009 census recorded only 2,383 people in an area of approximately 25,000 km2.