A desert mystery
Insurgents were reported to have burned tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu as French troops surrounded the city. Timbuktu has long been a byword for a distant and unreachable place. But how did it come to be so?
— No European is known to have visited Timbuktu until Robert Adams, a sailor captured after a shipwreck off the West African coast, claimed to have been taken there as a slave in 1812. He turned up in Tangier the next year, having been sold to tobacco merchants.
— Three years later, he published an account, The Narrative of Robert Adams. Its description of Timbuktu as an ‘unimpressive’ place that failed to live up to its fabled grandeur was widely disbelieved, leading the French Société de Géographie in 1824 to offer a 10,000 franc prize to anyone who could reach the town and return with a convincing description.
— A Scotsman, Gordon Laing, managed to reach Timbuktu in 1826 but was killed there.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in