Timbuktu

TIMBUKTU (Mali, Africa)

This proverbially hard-to-reach ancient African city, once a flourishing trade center and regional capital, has stood for over eight centuries. It is now impoverished, and suffers from desertification, but it was once a Muslim scholarly center and home to a university, where books became symbols of wealth and power.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)