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A diagram of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina is one of the treasures found among thousands of ancient manuscripts.
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A death in a prominent family draws a crowd of mourners. Their ranks include members of Timbuktu's three major ethnic groups: the Tuareg, Songhai, and Arab. Each group has ruled the city during its long history.
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Imam Chafi inspects his family's manuscripts, some over 400 years old, after rains collapsed his roof. Dozens of Timbuktu families receive aid to preserve their libraries, covering expenses such as roof repairs.
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At its peak Timbuktu boasted 50,000 residents and streets swollen with arriving camel trains that stretched for miles. Today the city's population is about the same, but the caravans are almost extinct.
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With quills cut from desert shrubs, Boubacar Sadeck (in white) teaches calligraphy on the roof of his studio. The city once supported a flourishing industry of scribes who copied texts brought by traders and scholars.
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Islamic scholar Abdel Kader Haidara sorts through trunks of uncataloged manuscripts stored at his home, part of his family's 22,000-volume trove. Haidara has founded an organization to help Timbuktu families preserve their own collections.
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A selection of manuscripts from a small family library includes a text with astrology diagrams (center). Timbuktu's libraries contain over 100,000 manuscripts, and experts believe many thousands remain undiscovered.
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Conservators at the Mamma Haidara Library, Timbuktu's largest private manuscript collection, repair pages using paper fabricated to match the originals. The texts are digitized, then sealed in acid-free boxes.
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A rare 17th-century Tuareg manuscript contains an illustration of the Prophet's sandals. Over the years many such tomes have been sold on the black market and spirited out of Mali.
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Timbuktu historian and philosopher Ismael Diadie Haidara takes a trip on the Niger River. His Moorish ancestors fled Andalusia when Spain expelled Muslims. The story of the Moors' exodus and arrival in Mali is contained in Tarikh al-fattash, a history of the Mali Empire and one of Timbuktu's most important ancient manuscripts.
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The Sankore Mosque was one of three historic mosques that oversaw a system of private academies run by Islamic scholars during the 15th and 16th centuries.
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Soldiers celebrate Malian independence day, September 22, but their revelry belies tensions beyond the city limits. Groups allied with al Qaeda hold hostages in the desert, crippling Timbuktu's tourism trade.
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By day Timbuktu's alleyways and vacant lots teem with pickup soccer games. By night boys gather around foosball tables sprinkled throughout the city. Though tensions occasionally flare among the city's largest ethnic groups—Tuareg, Songhai, and Arab—their children grow up speaking all three languages, often learned on makeshift soccer fields.
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High heels and high hopes have become vogue among teenage girls at Timbuktu's lone high school. A rise in female pupils, aided by scholarships, marks a national effort to cut Mali's 74 percent illiteracy rate.
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Dawn finds boys at a religious school studying the words of the Koran inscribed on their slates. "Reading, writing, and the Koran," says their teacher, echoing ages of Timbuktu scholars, "these are important."
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A mechanic repairs a truck used to carry slabs of salt from mines deep in the Sahara. Camel trains still work the route, but trucks haul more and make the 900-mile round trip in 10 days versus 45 for camels.
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Keeping an eye out for hippos, dockworkers bathe next to a boat in the Niger River, some six miles south of Timbuktu. The Niger once brought slaves and gold to the city; now it brings food, diesel fuel, and tourists.
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Bellah children play among their straw homes on the sandy fringes of Timbuktu. Though they're a tiny minority in Mali, the Bellah, descendants of slaves, constitute a major ethnic group in Timbuktu.
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After a day of grazing in the surrounding desert, a herd of sheep and goats follow their owner to his home on the edge of Timbuktu. Founded by Tuareg herders, Timbuktu still counts the livestock trade among its primary sources of income.
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