For many people, the name Timbuktu evokes ideas of a mythical city, inaccessible but wealthy in gold.

Timbuktu is an actual city in Mali in West Africa. Its heyday was from the 1200s to the 1500s when it was the capital of the Empire of Mali.

Timbuktu was also home to the University of Sankore, which was at that time one of the major universities in the world and one of the major centers of Islamic learning. At its peak, it had 25,000 students. An interesting fact is that it was founded by a woman.