Timbuktu
Home of the prestigious Koranic Sankore University and other madrasas, Timbuktu was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its three great mosques, Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia, recall Timbuktu's golden age. Although continuously restored, these monuments are today under threat from desertification.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/119
Timbuktu became famous in the 15th century because of the booming gold and salt trade in the Sahara region at that time.
Timbuktu was not only a commercial centre, but also of great importance for Islam and science, housing a famous university and several medressas. In some ways, it was the center of the (African-Islamic) world. The inscription actually narrows down to the three large mosques and sixteen cemeteries and mausoleums of Timbuktu.
During the 19th century a number of European adventurers visited Timbuktu, sometimes with fatal consequences. That was the period when the western world became aware of this city in the desert, and it received its romantic annotations.
https://www.worldheritagesite.org/list/Timbuktu
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