Abdoul Wahim Abdarahim Tahar of Timbuktu holds a book that has been in his family for generations. ( Photo courtesy of Karin Brulliard, The Washington Post.)According to a 2006 survey conducted by its Ministry of Culture, 34% of Britons thought this city "no longer existed" and the remaining 66% thought it was "a mythical place." They were 100% wrong. Timbuktu is a very real city today, and has been since at least the 10th century. According to a January 5, 2010 article in The Washington Post, the impoverished city may be ripe for an economic renaissance: a rebirth based on...
