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Part of the mystique of Timbuktu is how hard it is for Europeans to
get there. It was once the most important trade center in West
Africa, with camel caravans coming and going to all point of the
compass so not everyone had trouble getting there. By the time
Europeans were first trying to visit Timbuktu it was a closed city
that allowed Moslems only. Infidels that reached there the city
executed, which was the fate of several explorers. A few survived
to take up residence in Timbuktu, which is memorialize by plagues
around town, "Calle slept here," etc.
Now-a-days you are welcomed if you get there but it is still not so
easy to reach. Driving, even with four wheel drive, is
only possible in the dry season. Even then you have to properly
equip yourself and the are periodic problems with highway
bandits. You can get there by boat. The big ones take
several days from Mopti and don't expect them to keep a
schedule. Small boats can take a week or more. Air service
to Timbuktu is provided by Air Mali. The locals call it Air
Maybe. It may be the worst scheduled airline in the world.
Don't worry about an on-time record, their record for fly on the
scheduled DAY is less than 50%.
Once you get on the plane and up in the air, the view is
fascinating. Generally the route follows the Niger river. Along
the was the river divides into 100's of channels, there are villages,
boats and agricultural projects and a lot of vastness.
Timbuktu has lost some of the hustle and bustle that it must have
had in the 15th century when it had five universities, dozens mosques,
several 100,000 inhabitants, and scholars from as far away as the
Middle East and Europe. As it past into obscurity for several
centuries, so did it knowledge. As mysterious as so much of
Timbuktu, it is starting to give this out; in 1999 a young man who
knew of a visiting professors interest in African history invited the
professor to his modest house. There he took him to a small room
that was the family library. In the library he open an old chest
filled with manuscripts. 3,000 manuscripts ranging from letters and
fragments of
works to complete books and covering a range of subjects that include
theology, jurisprudence and history, and constituting the most
extensive written history of sub-Saharan Africa every found.
Copies of these treasures are now periodically on display in Timbuktu,
Bamako and in other exhibits around the world.
On a day to day basis Timbuktu's most salient characteristic is
sand. The seems to be the dust on the desert everywhere,
including the local bread. You would think that one of the
ingredients was a teaspoon of sand.
The sand also provides a good environment for camels. And
camels provide good amusement for the tourists. And the tourist
then provide a good income for the Tuaregs. The Tuaregs being
savvy about such things have figured out how to get the tourists on
the camels and trot them out into the sand, where they serve them
traditional tea, pose for a few pictures and then trot them back
again. |
