Timbuktu, Mali

Timbuktu: What It Actually Is and Whether You Can Go

The most important thing to know about Timbuktu in 2024 is that most travel advisories for Mali are at their highest warning level. Armed groups control large areas of northern Mali, including the roads to Timbuktu, and several Western governments advise against all travel to the region. The last reliable overland route, the Niger River boat from Mopti, has not operated safely for tourists since the 2012 Tuareg rebellion destabilised the north. Check your government’s current advice before considering any of this.

That said, Timbuktu is not a myth. It is a real city of around 50,000 people on the southern edge of the Sahara, and its historical importance was genuine.

What made it significant

From the 13th through the 16th century, Timbuktu was one of the primary centres of Islamic scholarship in sub-Saharan Africa. It sat at the intersection of trans-Saharan trade routes carrying gold and salt, and the wealth from that trade funded universities, libraries, and mosques. At its peak under the Mali and Songhai Empires, the city’s libraries held an estimated 700,000 manuscripts on theology, mathematics, astronomy, history, and law.

The three Great Mosques - Djinguereber (built 1327), Sankore (expanded in the 14th-15th century), and Sidi Yahia (1400s) - are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. All three are still standing despite a 2012 attack by Islamist militants who destroyed nine of the 14 mausoleums of Timbuktu’s saints. UNESCO-led restoration work has partially rebuilt the mausoleums.

The manuscripts

The Ahmed Baba Institute (also called IHERI-AB) was built with South African funding to house and preserve the city’s manuscript collection. During the 2012 occupation, staff and community members smuggled thousands of manuscripts south to Bamako in taxis and canoes. Roughly 370,000 documents were saved. A portion are now digitised and accessible via the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project, which you can access online without going anywhere near Mali.

If travel ever becomes feasible again

Chartering a light aircraft from Bamako or Mopti is the only route that has been used by journalists and NGO workers in recent years. Hotels in the traditional sense barely exist; travellers have historically stayed with local families through guides or NGO contacts. Accommodation is basic and infrastructure is minimal.

Food in Timbuktu centres on rice dishes, millet porridge, dried and smoked river fish from the Niger, and flatbreads from outdoor ovens. Fresh produce is scarce in summer. Mint tea is served constantly and refusing it is considered rude.

The wider context

The word “Timbuktu” entered European languages as a synonym for a distant and unreachable place. This was partly because early European accounts dramatically exaggerated its wealth - the city was prosperous but not paved in gold - and partly because it was genuinely difficult to reach across the Sahara. Scottish explorer Gordon Laing was the first European known to have reached the city, in 1826. He was killed shortly after leaving. René Caillié made it back to France in 1828 with the first detailed European account.

The manuscripts remain the most compelling reason to care about Timbuktu beyond its romantic reputation. When conditions change, this is a city that rewards serious travel.