Destination: London and Africa (1810)

Book: Timbuctoo (NEW July 2012) by Tahir Shah

Picture an African El Dorado where the only known metal is gold! Storehouses overflow with it, and coffers are brimming with it.  Roof tiles and cobblestones, cups and plates, buckets and bedsteads all are fashioned from that most intoxicating yellow ore!

William de Witt, British businessman, addressing the Royal African Committee in the novel, Timbuctoo

Contrary to popular belief, the roofs are not tiled in gold, nor is there a wealth of any kind, that is, what we might comprehend to be wealth.  Most of the jewellry is made from shells, taken from the river, or made from camel bone.  The houses are crafted form blocks of mud, and the majority of the townsfolk live a most squalid existence.

Robert Adams, the American, addressing the Royal African Committee in the novel Timbuctoo Continue reading The Ultimate Exotic Journey: Timbuctoo →