Dominic Bradbury sees one of the architectural treasures of Timbuktu being restored.
Travelling to Timbuktu is quite an adventure. The alternative to taking a boat up the River Niger, or driving overland for several tough days, is to board one of the small planes that fly to the city twice a week from Bamako, the capital of Mali in west Africa. The plane follows the winding Niger as it carves through the land before arriving in the historic desert settlement. To the north, sand and rock stretch for hundreds of empty miles, heading towards Morocco.
Here, in this frontier town on the Sahara, one of the most challenging restoration projects in Africa is under way. Few would invest time or money in such a remote corner of the continent, but a philanthropic development agency called the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) is working with local craftsmen to restore the Djingarey Ber mosque, one of the oldest and most important mud buildings in the world. In African terms, this is the equivalent of restoring St Peter’s in Rome.
Ismailimail 