Timbuktu, city in the western African country of Mali, historically important as a trading post on the trans-Saharan caravan route and as a center of Islamic culture (c. 1400–1600).
Timbuktu is a city located near the Niger River in modern-day Mali in West Africa. The area around Timbuktu has been inhabited since the Neolithic period as evidenced by Iron Age tumuli, megaliths and remains of now abandoned villages.
Timbuktu sits near the Niger River, where North Africa’s savannas disappear into the sands of the Sahara, and part of its romantic image is that of a camel caravan trade route.
Located at the gateway to the Sahara desert, within the confines of the fertile zone of the Sudan and in an exceptionally propitious site near to the river, Timbuktu is one of the cities of Africa whose name is the most heavily charged with history.
For centuries, the city of Timbuktu, located in the center of present-day Mali in Western Africa, thrived as one of the bustling centers of culture and learning during the Golden Age of Islam....
Timbuktu, also spelled as Timbuctoo or Tombouctou, is a city located in the West African country of Mali. It is situated in the northern part of the country, specifically in the region of Tombouctou. Timbuktu is located on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, along the Niger River.
Home of the prestigious Koranic Sankore University and other madrasas, Timbuktu was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a center for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Christian Science Monitor: In Timbuktu, a race to preserve Africa's written history