Located near the edge the Niger River during the rainy season (but about 8 miles from the river during much of the year), Timbuktu was founded by nomads in the twelfth century and it rapidly became a major trading depot for the caravans of the Sahara Desert.
During the fourteenth century, the legend of Timbuktu as a rich cultural center spread through the world. The beginning of the legend can be traced to 1324, when the Emperor of Mali made his pilgrimage to Mecca via Cairo. In Cairo, the merchants and traders were impressed by the amount of gold carried by the emperor, who claimed that the gold was from Timbuktu. Furthermore, in 1354 the great Muslim explorer Ibn Batuta wrote of his visit to Timbuktu and told of the wealth and gold of the region. Thus, Timbuktu became renown as an African El Dorado, a city made of gold.
During the fifteenth century, Timbuktu grew in importance but its homes were never made of gold. Timbuktu produced few of its own goods but served as the major trading center for salt trade across the desert region. The city also became a center of Islamic study and the home of a university and extensive library. The city's maximum population during the 1400s probably numbered somewhere between 50,000 to 100,000, with approximately one-quarter of the population composed of scholars and students.
The legend of Timbuktu's wealth refused to die and only grew. A 1526 visit to Timbuktu by a Muslim from Grenada, Leo Africanus, told of Timbuktu as a typical trading outpost. This only incited further interest in the city. In 1618, a London company was formed to establish trade with Timbuktu. Unfortunately, the first trading expedition ended up with the massacre of all its members and a second expedition sailed up the Gambia River and thus never reached Timbuktu.
In the 1700s and early 1800s, many explorers attempted to reach Timbuktu but none returned. Many unsuccessful and successful explorers were forced to drink camel urine, their own urine, or even blood to attempt to survive the barren Sahara desert. Known wells would be dry or would not provide enough water upon an expedition's arrival so water was quite scarce.
Mungo Park was a Scottish doctor who attempted a trip to Timbuktu in 1805. Unfortunately, his expedition team of dozens of Europeans and natives all died or abandoned the expedition along the way and Park was left to sail along the Niger River, never visiting Timbuktu, but merely shooting at people and other objects on the shore with his guns as his insanity increased along his voyage. His body was never found.
In 1824, the Geographical Society of Paris offered a reward of 7000 francs and a gold metal valued at 2,000 francs to the first European who could visit Timbuktu and return to tell their story of the mythical city...
