"Timbuktu is called the City of Mysteries. It's the city where salt comes from the north, gold comes from the south and money comes from the west. But real hospitality is only found in Timbuktu."

The ancient city of Timbuktu is famous for being in the middle of nowhere – which is not quite fair, because it’s in the middle of Mali. But it is remote, and surrounded by desert.

Six hundred years ago, Timbuktu was a mighty city. The city lay at the cross-roads of the main Saharan trade routes and its merchants grew rich from the transport of gold, ivory, salt and slaves from West Africa to the Mediterranean.

Great mosques, universities, schools and libraries were built. They were important centres of learning for much of the Muslim world, and people travelled from as far away as Saudi Arabia to study there. The 15th century Sankoré Mosque and university alone had 25,000 students. Some of the ancient buildings are still visible today. By the sixteenth century, Timbuktu had become legendary in the European imagination, representing all the wealth of Africa.

But Timbuktu’s fortunes changed. Around 400 years ago, European merchant ships began trading along the West African coast, and the old cross-Saharan trade routes lost their importance. Timbuktu went into decline, having lost the source of its wealth. It became known as a sort of ‘lost city’.

Nevertheless, Timbuktu is very much alive today. Around 40,000 people live there, the 150 Koranic schools attract many students, and the ancient salt trade, which made Timbuktu so wealthy, is still very important. There’s also a major conservation project under way to restore Timbuktu’s historic buildings and make the city a tourist destination.

January 2000 will see the city hosting Mali’s millennium celebrations.