No European had returned alive from Timbuktu until French adventurer René Caillie, who arrived in the ‘City of Gold’ on 20th April, 1828 after an arduous year-long journey. He was fêted by the Société de Géographie in Paris, who awarded him 10,000 francs in recognition of his daring voyage - and his place in the history books was assured.

But Caillie was disappointed by what he had found. “The city presented, at first view, nothing but a mass of ill-looking houses, built of earth,” he wrote. “Nothing was to be seen in all directions but immense plains of quicksand of a yellowish white colour ... all nature wore a dreary aspect."

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why a myth had grown up around the Malian city; reveal how Caillie got away with pretending to be Muslim; and dig up the Société’s impressively exhaustive list of evidence required to prove he had been there…

Further Reading:

• Who, What, Why: Why do we know Timbuktu?’ (BBC News, 2012): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17583772

• ‘Foreign Policy: Timbuktu, Lost City’ (NPR, 2012): https://www.npr.org/2012/07/11/156602241/foreign-policy-timbuktu-lost-city

• ‘Timbuktu’ (UNESCO, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4V-QAzKQ3A

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

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