Everyone has heard of Timbuktu, but how many know that it was a great trading city, famous in the Middle Ages for its university? Gates sets out on a journey through modern Mali, following ancient trading routs from the goldmines of the south to the legendary city on the shores of the Sahara desert, in search of the forgotten libraries of Timbuktu.
Lost Cities of the South
Under apartheid, the official history of South Africa began in 1652, when the first Dutch settlers landed. In the new South Africa, the myth that this was an empty land is being overturned. Traveling from South Africa to Zimbabwe, Gates explores a thousand-year-old African City kept from public view for seventy years, sings Karaoke with Afrikaner holiday-headmaker, and heads for the medieval stone citadel of Great Zimbabwe.
Message edited by sanju - Tuesday, 22-November-2011, 4:06 PM
