Timbuktu - Sahara Desert
Timbuktu in West Africa, the country of Mali. It is often said that the bank of River Niger, but it is located 20 km north of the water. And it is an island, as many believe, nor has invented a mythical place.It is alleged that raised from mud and clay mosques inspired Gaudi himself.
Timbuktu has a glorious history of the city, crossed by caravan routes linking West Africa with traders from across North Africa and thence to Europe. On the continent the name Timbuktu has always been a metaphor for exotic, distant lands and stories of African town, his golden palaces and high towers are excited imagination in the late Middle Ages. Legends tell how Emperor Mansa Musa in 1324 went on a pilgrimage to Mecca with thousands of people of Timbuktu in Cairo. When stopped in Cairo to visit the Sultan Musa gave me so much gold, that all started talking about untold riches of Timbuktu.
The ancient village has a huge contribution to the development of Islam, but for world civilization. Even before the XIV century, Timbuktu became a literary center, where they were written and rewritten dozens of books and in the XV century arises Islamic University, who also studied the Qur'an and a number of secular disciplines. Chronicles tell of more than 20,000 students in 180 madrassas heap. Libraries have kept thousands of valuable manuscripts, some of which are in museums worldwide, part - in Mali and other African countries. Islamic proverb says: "Salt comes from the north, gold - from the south, and the words of God and the treasures of wisdom - from Timbuktu."The town was established as a seasonal nomadic settlement in the X century. Gradually expanded as time lying on the Saharan gold, ivory, slaves and salt - with passing caravans or boats loaded on the River Niger. Legends of the vast wealth of Timbuktu attracted European explorers to Africa. In 1512 Leo Africans writes: "The rich king of Timbuktu has many palaces and golden scepters ... He was always available to 3000 horsemen, and many doctors, judges, priests and other educated people who live entirely at the expense of the King ... " In 1450 the city's population exceeds 100,000 people, a quarter of them are scientists. In 1591 Timbuktu was conquered by well-armed mercenaries, sent by the Sultan of Morocco. In 1593, scientists were arrested, accused of are not loyal to Morocco, some killed and others - sent into exile. Moroccan troops are unable to protect the city from invasions of different tribes. The city declined. In 1824 in Paris Geographical Society offered a reward of 10,000 francs to those who fail to reach Timbuktu and return with information. Scot Gordon Laing Scott managed to enter the city, but was killed. Successful mission was the Frenchman Rene Kyle, who travels alone and disguised as a Muslim. To his amazement, instead of shining golden palaces traveler discovered clay poverty and ruined houses. In 1894 Timbuktu was conquered by Frenchmen, who partially restored it. In 1960 became part of the independent Republic of Mali.
Inhabited by the Tuareg (the first "blue people of the Sahara") at the beginning of the XII century, Timbuktu has one of those legendary names which conjure images of something elusive and mysterious to some distant corner of the world to which it is impossible To get or when arrive to penetrate it.Road of the caravans in the Sahara - and the precious salt and gold mined nearby - do a thriving metropolis, known in Europe for its material and intellectual wealth and her ardent Muslims.
Today it is even less visited mosques "Dzhingareyber", "Sankore" and "Sidi Yahia" (all included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site), located in the middle of urban adobe buildings and moving sands of the desert. Its fate reflects the fate of Mali as a whole - one of the most powerful countries in Africa to one of the poorest in the world.Timbuktu precious cargo pass through its cognate commercial city, Jenny, who is 350 km to the southwest. Prosperous and powerful, it becomes even more famous as a center of Islamic literature and are sent here to teach children from across West Africa. He has survived as one of the most beautiful cities in the world mud.
His magnificent Great Mosque (whose colors are recreated each year after heavy rains) is the largest and most complex adobe building in the world. South of here is geographically isolated by the Dogon have created an intriguing civilization rejected both Christianity and Islam, kept the traditions and customs of their ancestors followers who came here 700 years ago, possibly from Libya.
