Map of Timbuktu
Timbuktu is a first-level division of Mali. Its largest mapped city is Timbuktu, with about 68,872 people in the metropolitan area. The interactive map below is centred on Timbuktu, and the tables list its 4 mapped cities along with the lakes nearest to them.
- Cities Mapped
- 4
- Largest City
- Timbuktu
- Country
- Mali
Interactive Map of Timbuktu
About Timbuktu
Timbuktu ( TIM-buk-TOO; French: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: Tunbutu; Tuareg: ⵜⵏⵀⵗⵜ, romanized: Tin Bukt) is an ancient city in Mali, situated 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the 19 administrative regions of Mali, with a population of around eighty-four thousand people in the 2023 census.
Archaeological evidence suggests prehistoric settlements in the region, predating the city's Islamic scholarly and trade prominence in the medieval period. Timbuktu began as a seasonal settlement and became permanent early in the 12th century. After a shift in trading routes, particularly after the visit by Mansa Musa around 1325, Timbuktu flourished, due to its strategic location, from the trade in salt, gold, and ivory. It gradually expanded as an important Islamic city on the Saharan trade route and attracted many scholars and traders before it became part of the Mali Empire early in the 14th century. In the first half of the 15th century, the Tuareg people took control for a short period, until the expanding Songhai Empire absorbed it in 1468.
A Moroccan army defeated the Songhai in 1591 and made Timbuktu their capital. The invaders established a new ruling class, the Arma, who after 1612 became virtually independent of Morocco. In its golden age, the town's Islamic scholars and extensive trade network supported an important book trade. Together with the campuses of the Sankoré Madrasah, an Islamic university, this established Timbuktu as a scholarly centre in Africa. Notable historical writers, such as Shabeni and Leo Africanus, wrote about the city. These stories fuelled speculation in Europe, where the city's reputation shifted from being rich to mysterious. The city's golden age as a major learning and cultural centre of the Mali Empire was followed by a long period of decline. Different tribes governed until the French took over Mali in 1893.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia: Timbuktu (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Timbuktu in Depth
History
Timbuktu has acquired a reputation in the Western world as an exotic, mysterious place, but the city was once a well known trade center and an academic hotspot of the medieval world. Timbuktu reached its golden age under the Mali Empire in the 13th and 14th centuries. Distinguished Malian Mansa Mūsā brought great fame to the city by recruiting scholars from throughout the Islamic world to travel there, establishing it as a center of learning. The scholars focused not only on Islamic studies, but also history, rhetoric, law, science, and, most notably, medicine. Mansa Mūsā also introduced Timbuktu, and the Mali Empire in general, to the rest of the medieval world through his Hajj, as his time in Mecca would soon inspire Arab travelers to visit North Africa.
Geography
Timbuktu is located on the southern edge of the Sahara 15 km (9+1⁄2 mi) north of the main channel of the River Niger. The town is surrounded by sand dunes and the streets are covered in sand. The port of Kabara is 8 km (5 mi) to the south of the town and is connected to an arm of the river by a 3 km (2 mi) canal. The canal had become heavily silted but in 2007 it was dredged as part of a Libyan financed project.
The annual flood of the Niger River is a result of the heavy rainfall in the headwaters of the Niger and Bani rivers in Guinea and northern Ivory Coast. The rainfall in these areas peaks in August but the floodwater takes time to pass down the river system and through the Inner Niger Delta.
Economy
The wealth and very existence of Timbuktu depended on its position as the southern terminus of an important trans-Saharan trade route; nowadays, the only goods that are routinely transported across the desert are slabs of rock salt brought from the Taoudenni mining centre in the central Sahara 664 km (413 mi) north of Timbuktu. Until the second half of the 20th century most of the slabs were transported by large salt caravans or azalai, one leaving Timbuktu in early November and the other in late March.
The caravans of several thousand camels took three weeks each way, transporting food to the miners and returning with each camel loaded with four or five 30 kg (66 lb) slabs of salt.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Timbuktu (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Timbuktu: Key Facts
| Population | 35,330 (2012) |
|---|---|
| Area | 148 km² |
Facts from Wikidata Q9427 (CC0).
History of Timbuktu: Empires and States
The atlas records 9 polities whose mapped territory included part of Timbuktu, from The Mali Empire in 1236 CE to 2024 CE. They are listed in the order they first appear.
| Polity | Period here |
|---|---|
| The Mali Empire | 1236–1467 CE |
| Songhai Empire | 1468–1594 CE |
| Bamana Empire | 1803–1821 CE |
| Massina Empire | 1822–1861 CE |
| French Third Republic | 1895–1939 CE |
| French Africa | 1895–1957 CE |
| The French Colonial Empire | 1895–1957 CE |
| French Fourth Republic | 1945–1957 CE |
| Mali Federation | 1960–2024 CE |
Historical Maps of Timbuktu
Timbuktu on the world map in each year one of these states held it:
Derived by testing mapped cities against dated territorial polygons. Dates are when the polygons cover this place, not the polity's whole lifespan, and polities absent from the source dataset are not listed.
Visiting Timbuktu
Timbuktu (also Tombouctou or Timbuctu) is a Tuareg city on the Niger River in the country of Mali. Its long history as a trading outpost that linked black Africa below the Sahara Desert with Berber and Islamic traders throughout north Africa, and thereby indirectly with traders from Europe, has given it a fabled status. Combined with its relative inaccessibility, "Timbuktu" has come to be used as a metaphor for exotic, distant lands. Timbuktu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: Timbuktu (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Largest Cities in Timbuktu
4 cities mapped. Ranked by metropolitan population. A port city's harbour is written up on the page of its sea.
| # | Name | Population | Region | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Timbuktu | 68,872 | Timbuktu | Populated place |
| 2 | Goundam | 8,456 | Timbuktu | Populated place |
| 3 | Araouane | 4,026 | Timbuktu | Populated place |
| 4 | Taoudenni | 3,019 | Timbuktu | Populated place |
Largest Lakes in Timbuktu
1 lake mapped. Ranked by mapped surface area. A lake on a border is listed under each country it lies in, with the area of the whole lake. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.
| # | Name | Surface Area | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lake Dbo | 328 km² | Lake |
Timbuktu: Quick Answers
- Where is Timbuktu?
- Timbuktu is a first-level division of Mali, in Africa. Its mapped cities centre on 18.6875° N, 3.5491° W.
- What is the largest city in Timbuktu?
- Timbuktu is the largest city mapped in Timbuktu, with a metropolitan population of about 68,872.
- How many cities are in Timbuktu?
- YearMaps maps 4 cities and towns in Timbuktu, with a combined metropolitan population of about 84,373. This counts mapped settlements, not every municipality.
- What is the largest lake in Timbuktu?
- The largest lake mapped in or beside Timbuktu is Lake Dbo, at about 328 km².