Kathmandu, Xanadu, Tombouctou -- reality, myth, reality, where does one begin and another end? These are places that the names alone conjure up mysterious and exotic images in the mind's eye. Tombouctou is a name that evokes a feeling of being at the end of the world.

Many believe the Tuareg people founded Tombouctou. For the Tuareg tribe what once was is now no longer. They are going through a period of transition and what their future will be is not known.

Tuareg men often cover their faces with a veil called the taguemoust. Not only does it lessen the impact of the desert's elements, it also highlights the individual's status within the tribe. 

Arriving at this life-long destination, the Traveler considers a simple personal fact -- the foundations of the adult's world travels were born in the dreams and questions of his childhood. With Tombouctou the question hadbeen so simple -- if you are at the end of the world, where does the road from Tombouctou go?

The End....

Acknowledgments

 


©2001 Mysterious Places All rights reserved worldwide

 

 

 "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A Stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea..." Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan