Reconstruction of Timbuktu mausoleums nears completion.

Three years after their destruction by extremists, the Timbuktu mausoleums are nearly restored through the extraordinary work carried out by local craftsmen and with international support. The announcement came at an event held in Bonn as part of the World Heritage Committee session taking place in the German city.
“The reconstruction of the mausoleums in Timbuktu is a fine example of the successful implementation of the decisions of the World Heritage Committee. Since the site was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2012, the World Heritage Committee has been working on this case,” said Maria Böhmer, Chair of the World Heritage Committee at the event. “We are deeply impressed by what has been achieved regarding the safeguarding of this incomparable World Heritage property. At a time when heritage is coming under attack by armed groups, the reconstruction of the mausoleums of Timbuktu gives us grounds for optimism.” “Timbuktu is the symbol of a country that is recovering and regaining its self-confidence. It is the best answer we can give to violent extremists and a remarkable success story for the international community,” declared UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán.

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Perhaps with time and the hopeful removal of Islamofascist from power Unesco can rebuild or repair the damages done in other places like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan .
As this is the Ancient and Lost Civilizations forum, many here would know the importance of commerce and learning of this city from the middle ages for those who don't here is a brief overview, true it is now a dusty rundown desert town full of poor folks, but in it's glory days, the city university of Sankore boast 25,000 students from their known world, faculty members who taught there could teach unencumbered in any city in the Muslim world, but potential teachers from elsewhere had to go through a rigorous testing and if found wanting had to sit with the students, this actually happened to a professor from the university of Baghdad, It's citizens now among the poorest in the world was among the wealthiest ,happiest and healthiest at the time, their doctors and craftsmen designed iron implements and skillfully remove cataracts from the eyes, The richest single individual of all times down to the present according to Forbes Magazine hailed from that city known as Mansa Musa his pilgrimage to Mecca saturated the area of the middle east and Africa with so much gold that it's value declined for 12yrs, while he made his historic trip to the east his brother and predecessor according to historians of the time went west across the Atlantic in fleets of 2000 ships never to be seen or heard from again . did he made landfall??...history remains silent on that.
Again let us preserve our collective history for all of it is our heritage..go UNESCO..

a reply to: Spider879

S&F for such great information. I am so glad these monuments are being preserved despite the efforts of some ignorant morons who think they have the right to destroy them.

I really wish there was some world law made to punish those who think they can just remove and deface our ancient sites without any repercussion. Religion is no excuse for these people, they commit IMHO a 'blasphemy against human achievement'.

Personally I would put them in jail for for a very long time, purely as a deterrent because our heritage sites are very important and what's left of them should be respected etc.

A lot of people get immense pleasure out of looking and admiring these heritage and ancient sites. What right does some religious thug have to spoil them for the rest of us?

a reply to: Shiloh7

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think that they are or were particularly under threat from extremists, the threat is from urban development of the area and desertification leading to increasing population density as people leave barren land. If anything, the power struggle three years ago has benefited the site, bringing it back into the imagination of the wider world, particularly it's place in the history of the academic world and leading to the World Heritage Organisation getting involved to organise restoration and preservation work. Given it's importance to Islam, they would be foolish to destroy a place that demonstrates the rational foundation of their religious identity, and long legacy in continuation of the Madrasa system.

Extremism doesn't denote stupidity, they know they need investment in the area, and they have hands willing to help feed them. There is no iconoclastic gesture in destroying Timbuktoo, it was forgotten until they brought it back...that's marketing gold, and somewhat proves a point, if inclined to take it that way.

whc.unesco.org...

originally posted by: Anaana
a reply to: Shiloh7

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think that they are or were particularly under threat from extremists, the threat is from urban development of the area and desertification leading to increasing population density as people leave barren land. If anything, the power struggle three years ago has benefited the site, bringing it back into the imagination of the wider world, particularly it's place in the history of the academic world and leading to the World Heritage Organisation getting involved to organise restoration and preservation work. Given it's importance to Islam, they would be foolish to destroy a place that demonstrates the rational foundation of their religious identity, and long legacy in continuation of the Madrasa system.

Extremism doesn't denote stupidity, they know they need investment in the area, and they have hands willing to help feed them. There is no iconoclastic gesture in destroying Timbuktoo, it was forgotten until they brought it back...that's marketing gold, and somewhat proves a point, if inclined to take it that way.

whc.unesco.org...

The political fact is that local rebels started a war with the Mali gov't these were then upstaged by an Al Qaeda affiliated group ' they were more extreme than the Tuareg rebels who wanted a home land carved out in northern Mali, when these purist took over they began the rampage against what they saw as non Islamic destroying the mausoleums of the 300 local prophets,forcing women into middle eastern type hijabs and banning music and dance, some brave locals took to hiding valuable manuscripts,before they could be destroyed, and yes extremist by their very nature are unthinking and denotes stupidity.

originally posted by: Spider879
The political fact is that local rebels started a war with the Mali gov't these were then upstaged by an Al Qaeda affiliated group ' they were more extreme than the Tuareg rebels who wanted a home land carved out in northern Mali, when these purist took over they began the rampage against what they saw as non Islamic destroying the mausoleums of the 300 local prophets,forcing women into middle eastern type hijabs and banning music and dance, some brave locals took to hiding valuable manuscripts,before they could be destroyed, and yes extremist by their very nature are unthinking and denotes stupidity.

Unthinking and stupid are not exclusive to extremism, nor only the province of the uneducated and ignorant. Lots of very intelligent but stupid people walking around in all spheres of life. Anyway, I do very much remember the Tuareg's kicking off and the subsequent moving in of Al Qaeda affiliated gangsters, but had not followed up much after that regarding the specific damage that they caused while they were there, or whether such attacks were still a threat to the buildings etc. That the vandalism was particularly targeted at Sufism, while not surprising is telling. Almost all accounts of the thuggish, bandito-like behaviour of those that occupied the sites indicates a lack of personal observance of Islam, they were enforcers, not practitioners (or at least highly hypocritical ones), and yet they knew enough to differentiate, and target, monuments related to Sufi mysticism. There is some thinking going on there, as to what should be destroyed and what shouldn't be. Control too, or the imposition of limits from a more thinking authority. Either way, they are no longer a current threat to the monuments. It is interesting though, in retrospect, that the area was targeted and later ceded with relative ease, with the gangs mostly sloping off, once their more thinking leader had presumably been neutralised, or had already left of their own accord perhaps. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the objective, achieved in the first wave of Al qaeda affiliates, was to destroy the Manuscript Institute.

For those who are interested in old Timbuktu a few yrs back, at about time 18:23 Archeologist Doug park is making some remarkable discoveries of an even earlier city that dates back to about 500yrs B.C that would put it in the ballpark of classical Greeks , if I am wrong someone correct me, One of Doug Park's ancestor had some interest involvement with the city.
Take your time and enjoy.
Not sure how long it will be up because the full vid was taken off before.