TIMBUKTU - TOMBOUCTOU

Travellers who make the pilgrimage witness a city lost in the desert, overtaken by both history and geography. It seems only a matter of time before the encroaching sands of the Sahara blanket the city forever. As droughts and desertification threaten the settlement, tourism has become increasingly important to Timbuktu's 15,000 remaining residents. The area offers much to those who are spellbound by the desert, interested in history, and who are not expecting Lawrence of Arabia to come flouncing down the street before them.

imbuktu is strategically located on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, 10 km north of the northernmost loop of the Niger River. It began life as the terminus of a camel route that brought Arabia to Black Africa, developing from a modest 11th-century Tuareg trading post into a major financial centre and one of the most famous sites of Islamic scholarship in the Muslim world. Its wealth, like that of many Sahelian towns straddling the trans-Sahara trade routes, was based largely on gold, salt, ivory, kola nuts and slaves. Its decline from a city of 100,000 souls began when it was captured and sacked in 1591 by the Berber armies of Sultan Mansour of Marrakesh and when Europe's maritime nations began foraying along the coast of West Africa, breaking the Tuareg's monopoly on trans-Sahara trade.

andering through the narrow twisting streets of the old section of Timbuktu, travellers will see two and three-storey mud houses with huge wooden doors ornamented with studs and carvings, bread being baked in dome-shaped ovens, three famous mosques, the houses where three feisty European explorers stayed and the central market where canny bargainers can purchase anything from leather goods to camels. It doesn't take much to get lost or disoriented but hang in there and you'll eventually emerge onto one of the wide sandy avenues surrounding it.

The Djinguereber Mosque is the oldest and most famous of Timbuktu's mosques, and the only one that visitors can enter. The mosque dates from the early 14th century when Emperor Kankan Moussa took control of the city from the Tuareg. Visitors who ask may be allowed to climb the minaret for a birds-eye view of the town.

he most touristy thing to do in Timbuktu is to take a short camel ride out to one of the Tuareg camps. Timbuktu is the centre of these nomadic, fair-skinned people, known as the `blue men of the desert' because of the swathes of indigo cloth they wrap around themselves. The Tuareg are famous for their fighting ability and their metalwork (best seen on their decorative silver swords). Unfortunately, their nomadic life has been disrupted by the droughts which afflicted the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s and many have been forced to become urban residents or farmers.

The trip to the camp is overpriced but enjoyable if your time is short or if you've never ridden a camel before. The best time to go is in the late afternoon so you can witness the desert at sunset. A staged swordfight and strong, sweet Arab tea served in a Tuareg tent are part of the programme. It's prohibited to stay overnight in the Tuareg tents, but some people still manage to wangle it. Other excursions include 4WD jaunts to Lake Faguibine, the largest lake in West Africa, and one of the best places in the Sahel to see migratory birds; and to the river town of Dire, the only wheat-growing town in West Africa, and the source of Timbuktu's famous bread.

imbuktu's proximity to the Niger River, the lifeblood of much of West Africa, was an essential reason for its success as a trading post. Even today, 3000-strong camel caravans leave Timbuktu twice a year (March and November) to bring salt from the mines at Taoudenni, some 600 km away to the north. If you really want to immerse yourself in the culture of the desert, it's possible to join the caravans for the fantastic but arduous seven-day trek to Arouane. When the caravans return, the salt is unloaded in Timbuktu and sent upriver to Mopti or downriver to Gao from the river port of Kabara, 10 km from Timbuktu.

A trip on the river is one of the highlights of a visit to the region; travellers can catch river boats or pinasse to Mopti or Gao from Kabara or even a steamer all the way to Bamako, the capital of Mali. The Niger's river ports are raucous, exuberant, malodorous and bewildering places. Stevedores, boatbuilders, fishermen, passengers, traders and merchants all do their best to ward off the solitude and silence of the surrounding desert.

The most interesting way to get to Timbuktu is by boat. River craft ply the Niger from Koulikoro (60 km east of Bamako) to Gao stopping at over a dozen towns along the way. The journey takes between four and five days, but it's no cruise. The best time to do the trip is in November because the weather is cooler and the boats become more frequent. In theory, one boat departs in each direction every week. Time your journey according to the season. Avoid attempting the trip between November and January because water levels may make the river unnavigable; in March, April or May, it's so hot you'll dehydrate and become dangerously short-tempered.

nce you make it to this legendary city, you have a choice of two hotels: both west of the old town and both overpriced. Hotel Bouctou is the cheaper of the two and the closest to the town centre. It has basic rooms in the main building but offers more rudimentary accommodation in a cheap annexe. In the annexe you'll just get a room with a mattress on the floor, so drag the mattress up to the roof and sleep under the stars - it's cooler and less stuffy. Hotel Relais Azalai is a nice, air-conditioned establishment on the same street, but you pay through the nose for its amenities. The best cheap restaurants are Restaurant du Nord and Poulet d'Or, but expect to have plenty of sand in your food (you should be used to this by the time you reach Timbuktu). You may be able to negotiate to kip down in these establishments, but it is technically against the law. The Bar Thierry-Sabine has cheap cold beers, which will make you wonder whether refridgeration was not the peak of human civilisation.