Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Today In History with The Retrospectors
Episode: The Truth About Timbuktu
Description: No European had returned alive from Timbuktu until French adventurer RenĂ© Caillie, who arrived in the âCity of Goldâ on 20th April, 1828 after an arduous year-long journey. He was fĂȘted by the SociĂ©tĂ© de GĂ©ographie in Paris, who awarded him 10,000 francs in recognition of his daring voyage - and his place in the history books was assured.But Caillie was disappointed by what he had found. âThe city presented, at first view, nothing but a mass of ill-looking houses, built of earth,â he wrote. âNothing was to be seen in all directions but immense plains of quick...