Timbuktu is a city in the country of Mali in western Africa. People sometimes use the word Timbuktu as a synonym for a place that is far away and hard to get to. However, at the peak of its fame, from about 1300 to 1600, Timbuktu was easy to reach. In fact, it was one of the world's greatest cities.

Timbuktu is now a shadow of its former self. As a small city on the edge of the ever-growing Sahara Desert, Timbuktu often strikes its infrequent visitors as humble and run-down.

It was not always so. Timbuktu was once a focal point of Arab-African trade and a center of Islamic scholarship under the Mali Empire and Songhai Empire. In the early 1300s, Mansa Musa, the famous ruler of the Mali Empire, traveled through Timbuktu on his way to and from Mecca, located in, what is now, Saudi Arabia. At that time, he supposedly founded the Djinguereber and Sankore mosques. The third of the city's great mosques, Sidi Yahia, was founded around 1400. These three astonishing places of worship, all rebuilt in the 1500s, recall Timbuktu's Golden Age.

In their prime, the city's mud-and-brick mosques were the home of a 25,000-student university and other madrasahs (religious schools that are often connected to mosques). These schools helped spread Islam throughout Africa between the 14th and 16th centuries. Golden Age Timbuktu may have had a population as high as 100,000 people.

University Attracted People from All Over

Timbuktu's university was a center of learning and culture that drew people in search of wisdom from all over Africa and the Middle East. Sacred texts were carried great distances to Timbuktu for the use of visiting scholars. The great teachings of Islam, as well as astronomy, mathematics, and medicine, were collected and produced there in several hundred thousand manuscripts. They form a priceless written record of African and Islamic history.

Most of the manuscripts from Timbuktu's Golden Age are in private hands. Many have vanished into the illicit market. This trade in stolen goods threatens to steal Timbuktu's heritage. Some people have established libraries and cultural centers to preserve the precious collection. They hope that Timbuktu's history can bring tourism.

Religion was not the city's only industry. Timbuktu sits near the Niger River where Africa's savannas disappear into the sands of the Sahara Desert. Salt from the desert had great value as a trade item. Camel caravans would carry salt, as well as goods such as gold and ivory, for hundreds of kilometers. These profitable caravans enriched the city in its heyday and first brought scholars to congregate at the site.

In the late 1500s, invaders from Morocco began to drive the scholars out. Trade routes slowly shifted to the coasts and then across the Atlantic Ocean. Timbuktu's importance and prestige declined. In the late 1800s, France invaded and conquered the area and created a colony called French Sudan. The French were uninterested in developing Timbuktu and the glories of the city became a fading memory.

The Decline of Timbuktu

Mali won independence in 1960, and Timbuktu was added to the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage List in 1988. However, Mali has suffered from a great deal of political instability. In 2012 and 2020, military coups overthrew the government. Armed groups overran northern Mali. Some of these groups were violent Islamic fundamentalists and connected with Al Qaeda and ISIS. They destroyed some of Timbuktu's ancient buildings and manuscripts. By 2020, Timbuktu's population was barely 30,000.

Timbuktu would be an obvious tourist destination, but the armed conflicts in northern Mali are not good for tourism. Since 2012, Timbuktu has struggled to attract visitors and has been short of money to preserve its past. Many countries advise their citizens to avoid traveling to Timbuktu because of the danger.

Another problem is that Timbuktu is on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Global warming, soil erosion, and population pressure have combined to degrade the land, shrink the Niger River, and allow the desert to spread. Timbuktu is far less hospitable in 2020 than it was in 1420.

Timbuktu's heritage is one of the glories of world history.