Timbuktu

Timbuktu, Mali, 2006

I took this photo of a muslim man standing in front of Sidi Yahya mosque in August 2006. Traveling overland to Timbuktu was a somewhat surreal experience. Honestly, as a child I'm not sure I thought Timbuktu was an actual city. Rather, I thought it was a mythical place like, say, Narnia. Located on the southern edge of the Sahara near the banks of the Niger River, Timbuktu is an ancient trading route defined by centuries-old mud mosques, many of which are Unesco World Heritage sites. Along with Chinguetti in Mauritania or Zagora in Morocco, it's a place that brings back fond memories from our travels across the Sahara and has us dreaming up future Saharan adventures.

Sadly, since our visit in 2006, Timbuktu has experienced much instability including tourist kidnappings and the Tuareg rebellion. Following the Battle of Gao and Timbuktu in July 2012, Sidi Yahya's nearly 600 year old mausoleum and several other ancient religious sites were destroyed. Irreparable damage to one of the worlds great cultural and religious centers.