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West Africa

Things to do in Mali

The legendary city of Timbuktu, once the wealthiest trading center in the medieval world, and the mud-brick Great Mosque of Djenné, currently under a Do Not Travel advisory due to jihadist insurgency.

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What's worth your time in Mali

Visit the legendary city of Timbuktu

Culture

Once one of the wealthiest centers of Islamic scholarship and trans-Saharan trade in the medieval world, its manuscripts represent one of the largest collections of West African written history on Earth.

Explore the Great Mosque of Djenné

Culture

A UNESCO World Heritage site and the largest mudbrick building in the world, rebuilt annually by the entire community in a centuries-old collective tradition.

Explore the Dogon Country's cliffside villages

Culture

A UNESCO World Heritage escarpment region holding villages built into dramatic cliff faces, reflecting one of West Africa's most distinctive traditional architectural and cultural landscapes.

Visit Timbuktu's historic manuscript libraries

Culture

Centuries-old handwritten manuscripts on astronomy, law, and Islamic scholarship, painstakingly preserved and, in recent years, partly evacuated for safekeeping amid the conflict.