Timbuktu

The legendary Saharan city that was once a global center of learning/Everyday Places

Timbuktu is a city in central Mali on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, near the Niger River. Once synonymous in the Western imagination with the uttermost ends of the Earth, it was in reality one of the richest and most intellectually vibrant cities in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries, home to the University of Sankore and an estimated 700,000 manuscripts covering astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and law. At its peak under the Songhai Empire, the city's population reached roughly 100,000. Today, with a population of about 55,000, its ancient mud-brick mosques (Djinguereber, Sankore, and Sidi Yahia) are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.