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Timbuktu Travel Guide

Timbuktu, a name every child and every adult knows the world over. A far away place where you will be sent to if you don't behave! A place many people don't know actually exists...

The mythical yet real city of Timbuktu in Mali was once the cross roads for trade on the camel caravan route linking Africa with the Mediterranean and with the academic universities of the east.

Sankore Mosque, Timbuktu

Although Timbuktu is nothing on its former glory, it remains home to the prestigious Sankore University and is reputably the location of the first University in the world.

An intellectual and spiritual capital and centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, Timbutu has declined into a meager shanty town in the desert. Other sites to visit include Timbuktu's mud mosques.

If you visit at the right time, try find your way to the Festival of the Desert, a Taureg tradition held annually in January near Timbuktu.