Timbuktu's Salt Caravans: White Gold of the Sahel

Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History · Jul 30, 2026 · 6m · transcript

This episode of Fexingo History follows Lucas and Luna into the scorching Sahara to trace the salt caravans that made Timbuktu a center of learning. From the mines of Taghaza, where Ibn Battuta described houses built of salt, to the great trade routes linking the Niger Bend to North Africa, they explore how a simple mineral funded mosques, madrasas, and the world's most precious manuscripts. Lucas recounts the hazards of the journey—thirst, bandits, the crushing weight of salt slabs—and explains how salt functioned as currency, paying for the gold of Wangara and the scholarship of…