Timbuktu: from city of myth to rebel stronghold

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

By Bate Felix and Pascal Fletcher

Wed Apr 4, 2012 7:33am EDT

(Reuters) - When turban-swathed Tuareg rebels swept into Timbuktu on Sunday to plant the flag of their northern Mali homeland, they found very few tourists in the bars, hotels, museums, mosques and libraries of the fabled and ancient Saharan trading town.

Local guides say numbers of foreign visitors had already fallen off after a Dutchman, a South African and a Swede were seized by gunmen in the historic Malian city in November. A German citizen was killed in the abduction claimed by al Qaeda.

With the rebels, including Islamist factions preaching sharia, now in control of Timbuktu's dusty streets, tourists may not be returning soon to the spot near the Niger river that for centuries was a symbol of unreachable remoteness, bewitching voyagers with tales of wealth, wisdom and life-giving water.

"Practically all hotels are empty and closed. Nothing is going on in the tourism sector," tourist guide Oumar Ag Mohammed Hamaleck told Reuters from the city this week, contrasting this with the 80 tourists a day he hosted during past boom periods.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/uk-mali-timbuktu-myth-idUSLNE83301X20120404

[dipsydoodle]

1. There’s a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu

There’s a little marble cross below the town;
There’s a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.



I found the article earlier and have since been trying to find the above - couldn't remember the name of Mad Carew.

Thanks for posting.