Desert Libraries of Timbuktu

Photo: Library of Congress exhibition

From European and North American perspectives, the very name of Timbuktu has long been associated with remoteness. This small settlement on the edge of the Sahara, however, is the home of several rich libraries that until recently were unknown to the outside world. UNESCO renewed its commitment to the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project with study tours in 2004. In September 2009, Time magazine reported on a library begun in the 12th century by an ancestor of the man who still preserves it today, saying there hundreds like it in Timbuktu.

The article quotes another man who reports that his ancestors carried their library from Toledo, Spain, fleeing religious persecution in 1467. The books are made of paper, with hand-tooled leather covers. They cover a vast array of subject materials including astronomy, poetry, philosophy, mathematics and medicine.