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Timbuktu

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Timbuktu

a town in central Mali, on the River Niger: terminus of a trans-Saharan caravan route; a great Muslim centre (14th--16th centuries). Pop.: 31 925 (latest est.)
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Timbuktu

fabled land of wealth and splendor. [Eur. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1084]

Timbuktu

figuratively, the end of the earth. [Am. Usage: NCE, 2749]
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Timbuktu

Popular remote control software for Windows and the Mac from Netopia, Inc., a Motorola company, Emeryville, CA (www.netopia.com). Timbuktu supports AppleTalk, TCP/IP, IPX, Skype software and Apple Remote Access protocols as well as direct dial up. Users can control, view and transfer files between Macs and Windows.
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Timbuktu

 

(also Tombouctou), a city in Mali, on the left bank of the Niger River. Population, 10,400 (1969). Timbuktu is a junction of caravan routes and a center for trade in salt, dates, and tobacco. The city was founded in the 11th or 12th century as a transfer point for caravan trade. In the 13th through 15th centuries Timbuktu was the most important economic and cultural center of the medieval state of Mali and, at the turn of the 16th century, of the Songhai kingdom. In 1893 the French seized Timbuktu. Its economic significance declined in the 20th century.

Timbuktu’s architectural monuments include numerous tombs and several important mosques—Dyingueré Ber (begun in the 13th century and rebuilt several times; it contains a series of courtyards and halls divided by columns), Sankoré (begun in the 14th century and rebuilt from the 16th through 18th centuries), and Sidi-Yahia (built circa 1440 and later restored). Timbuktu also has a museum of local lore.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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