History of Timbuktu the city before heading to Bamako and were welcomed by an ecstatic population. The city has been attacked multiple times on several different occasions, once on 21 March 2013 when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives killing a Malian soldier, creating a fierce shoot-out at the international airport killing ten rebels. On 31 March, a group of 20 rebels infiltrated into Timbuktu as civilians and attacked the Malian army base in the city killing three Malian soldiers and injuring dozens more. History of Timbuktu The following is a history of the city of Timbuktu, Mali. Starting out as a seasonal
Timbuktu spelling of Timbuktu has varied a great deal: from "Tenbuch" on the Catalan Atlas (1375), to traveller Antonio Malfante's "Thambet", used in a letter he wrote in 1447 and also adopted by Alvise Cadamosto in his "Voyages of Cadamosto", to Heinrich Barth's "Timbúktu" and "Timbu'ktu". French spelling often appears in international reference as "Tombouctou". As well as its spelling, Timbuktu's toponymy is still open to discussion. At least four possible origins of the name of Timbuktu have been described: The validity of these theories depends on the identity of the original founders of the city: as recently as 2000, archaeological