Timbuktu, French Sudan Tombouctou, Soudan franais

The Frobenius Institut in Frankfurt am Main owns several other works by Nansen of Timbuktu, which he visited the ethnographer Leo Frobenius. The city was historically important as a post on the trans-Saharan caravan route and as a centre of Islamic culture, but had declined from the early 17th century. It was partly restored from its desolate condition by the French, after they captured it in 1893.