MALI ~ Djinguereber Mosque - Timbuktu - UNESCO ~

... Happy mailbox day ㋡... one more fantastic new African country in my collection♥... Timbuktu is one of  the world’s most exotic and isolated destinations... a postcard showing probably the most impressive sight in the city...  an interesting thing to note about the The Djinguereber, is the fact that the historic mosque miraculously escaped being totally demolished by al-Qaida and Ansar Dine-led Islamic terrorists back in 2012 when they seized the town of Timbuktu burning thousands of ancient manuscripts and all the city’s mausoleums...

I got this great postcard thanks to Joseph and Assumpta who supported this amazing project https://www.postcardsfromtimbuktu.com/  to help unemployed tour guides in Mali make money... the radical Islamist occupation in 2012 and continued threats put a stop to tourism in northern Mali.

And how does you get your postcard???  I found this interesting article on BBC News:
Once you've paid up, the words you write are sent via Whatsapp to a writer in Timbuktu. The note is then delivered by the postman on his bike to Timbuktu's Post Office where it gets its all important stamp. Then it's sent back to Mali's capital Bamako, sometimes through a hitched ride on a UN flight down to the city. This is essential as it's only possible to send mail internationally from Bamako. "It's been really interesting for the former tour guides because they are used to interacting with people all over the world and although there are fewer tourists now, they can still be ambassadors for Timbuktu through this." The team have sent hundreds of postcards with interest surging. Phil says the current business model means the tour guides get about $6 after shipping, printing, the website platform costs and taxes are set aside. "So for a $10 postcard, they get a decent amount of money for what amounts to a few minutes' work really."

Thanks a million Josep and Assumpta for this wonderful surprise and supporting this project of which I never heard before!! (✿ ♥‿♥)➜ Letters and postcards from around

Most of Mali, in West Africa, lies in the Sahara. A landlocked country bordered by Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Côte d'Ivoire. The only fertile area is in the south, where the Niger and Senegal rivers provide water for irrigation.

Timbuktu was a thriving center of scholarship instrumental to the spread of Islam in Africa.

The Djinguereber Mosque (Masjid)  is a famous learning center of Mali built in 1327. Its design is accredited to Abu Es Haq es Saheli who was paid 200 kg (40,000 mithqals) of gold by Musa I of Mali,

Djinguereber mosque, in common with most buildings in city-centre Timbuktu, is constructed in mud brick; more elegantly known as “earthen architecture”. It’s a method in which layer upon layer of wet soil (“banco” or adobe) is rendered on to limestone rocks or onto bricks made from banco. In other parts of Mali, where humidity rates are higher, straw is mixed in as binding. The method is durable but requires regular maintenance.

 This West African city was added to the World Heritage List in 1988,

Stamps:

 Fauna - Wild Cats
(Issued 11-01-2014)