Timbuktu Is Not a Myth, It Is a Memory That Refused to Die

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16 January 2026

For years, I thought Timbuktu was just a word adults used to mean “very far away.”
Turns out, it is far — but it is also very real.
In the sands of Mali, where roads dissolve and maps grow quiet, Timbuktu still breathes. Not loudly. Not to impress. It survives the way old wisdom does — by refusing to disappear.
Once, scholars travelled here from across Africa and beyond, carrying books like sacred cargo. Knowledge mattered enough to cross deserts for. Imagine that.
Today, the city does not beg for attention. It doesn’t pose for postcards. Its buildings are worn, its streets modest. But somewhere inside old libraries, handwritten manuscripts still whisper ideas older than most nations.
Timbuktu teaches something uncomfortable:
Civilisation is not always shiny. Sometimes it is dusty, patient, and ignored.
And still alive.

Rajat Ch. Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam
India