Atlas DailyPlay today

Where is Timbuktu?

Timbuktu is in Mali, Africa.

Timbuktu is the dot in Mali (gold); Mali’s neighbours are lighter.
Type
Site in Mali
Continent
Africa
Region
Sahel
Mali’s land borders
7: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal
Coast
None. Mali is landlocked.
Coordinates
16.77° N, 3.01° W

About Timbuktu

Camel caravans carried Saharan salt south and West African gold north through the town from the 12th century. The Sankoré mosque and private libraries held manuscripts on law, astronomy and medicine; many were smuggled to safety in 2012. Gordon Laing arrived in 1826 and died within weeks; René Caillié got in and out two years later.

Clues from Atlas Daily

Round 2 on 9 September 2026 (#8), hardest clue first:

  1. A desert town that grew rich trading salt for gold and held hundreds of thousands of manuscripts.
  2. Its university and mosques made it a centre of Islamic learning in the 15th and 16th centuries.
  3. A Scottish explorer reached it in 1826 and was killed on the way out.
  4. Its name became a byword in English for somewhere impossibly remote.

Round 2 on 16 September 2026 (#15), hardest clue first:

  1. A desert town that grew rich trading salt for gold and held hundreds of thousands of manuscripts.
  2. Its university and mosques made it a centre of Islamic learning in the 15th and 16th centuries.
  3. A Scottish explorer reached it in 1826 and was killed on the way out.
  4. Its name became a byword in English for somewhere impossibly remote.

Round 2 on 23 September 2026 (#22), hardest clue first:

  1. A desert town that grew rich trading salt for gold and held hundreds of thousands of manuscripts.
  2. Its university and mosques made it a centre of Islamic learning in the 15th and 16th centuries.
  3. A Scottish explorer reached it in 1826 and was killed on the way out.
  4. Its name became a byword in English for somewhere impossibly remote.

Play today’s puzzle

Nearby places from past puzzles

More: past puzzles and answers · geography quiz · how to play

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Timbuktu · UNESCO: Timbuktu. Borders, area and map from Natural Earth 1:50m outlines, the same ones the game uses.