Q 01/05

Timbuktu is a city in which modern country?

A) Mali

B) Niger

C) Mauritania

D) Chad

Answer · why

A) Mali

It sits on the southern edge of the Sahara, about 15 to 20 km north of the River Niger.

Q 02/05

Timbuktu lies a short distance north of which great river?

A) Senegal

B) Congo

C) Nile

D) Niger

Answer · why

D) Niger

Its river port, Kabara, is 8 km south of town and only works in December and January when the flood is high.

Q 03/05

Timbuktu began as a seasonal Tuareg camp and became a permanent settlement early in which century?

A) 12th

B) 13th

C) 14th

D) 15th

Answer · why

A) 12th

Iron Age settlements nearby predate the traditional founding by more than a thousand years.

Q 04/05

Per a 17th-century chronicle, Timbuktu was named after a slave woman guarding Tuareg goods. What did her name mean?

A) 'Keeper of the well'

B) 'The one having a lump'

C) 'Mother of the dunes'

D) 'The distant one'

Answer · why

B) 'The one having a lump'

Other theories derive it from Songhay words for a hollow, a Berber phrase for small dunes, or a Zenaga root meaning 'hidden'.

Q 05/05

Timbuktu grew rich from its position on trans-Saharan trade routes in which three commodities?

A) Salt, gold and ivory

B) Silk, spices and silver

C) Copper, cotton and dates

D) Horses, tin and wine

Answer · why

A) Salt, gold and ivory

Salt came south from the desert, gold went north to the Mediterranean, and the city sat between them.