Introducing Timbuktu (Tombouctou)
Timbuktu, that most rhythmical of African names, has for centuries been synonymous with Africa’s mysterious inaccessibility, with an end-of-the-earth allure that some travellers just have to reach. It’s also the name we all knew as kids, but never really knew where it was.
More than just a name, Timbuktu’s fame derived from its strategic location, at once on the edge of the Sahara and at the top of the ‘Niger bend’, from its role as the fabulously wealthy terminus of a camel-caravan route that has linked West Africa and the Mediterranean since medieval times, and from the vast universities of Islamic scholarship that flourished under the aegis of some of Africa’s richest empires.
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House of French explorer Ren
- Frans Lemmens
- Lonely Planet photographer
