How many people live in Timbuktu?

About 84,208 people, according to the GeoNames dataset this page draws on. Population figures for smaller places are estimates and can be out of date.

What time zone is Timbuktu in?

Timbuktu uses the Africa/Bamako time zone.

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City

Timbuktu

Tombouctou • Mali

Know Timbuktu?

Nobody has written down what this place sounds like yet. If you live here, grew up here, or your family is from here, you know things this page does not — the artists, the music, the places people actually go.

Become a founding ambassador Help expand this page

You do not have to be an expert. Being from here is the qualification.

The story behind the white guitar

White Guitar 40 Years LaterWatch on YouTube →

The same song, sung in French

Guitar BlancheWatch on YouTube →

Timbuktu is a city in Tombouctou, Mali. It has a population of about 35,330, an area of 14,789 km², and an elevation of 261 m. It is on Greenwich Mean Time. Its nearest neighbours are Diré (71 km), Goundam (81 km), and Gourma Rharous (116 km).

Time zone: Africa/Bamako
Coordinates: 16.7735, -3.0074
Population: 84,208
Area: 14,789 km²
Elevation: 261 m

Nearby places

Referenced in

Information about this place is available. Commercial services and representative onboarding are evaluated separately.

Place data from GeoNames, used under CC BY 4.0 and modified for this site.

Music from Timbuktu

No verified artist from here has shared music with us yet. That is a gap somebody local can close — not something we will fill with music from somewhere else and call it Timbuktu.

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Artists we need help finding

These pages were built from what the community told us. The artists themselves have never seen them. If you know one of these people, send them their page — only they can decide what it says.

Ali Farka Touré
Artist
Help us find them
Khaira Arby
Artist · Musician · Songwriter
Help us find them

Everyone connected to this place

Add an artist we are missing

A sample: how a business in Timbuktu would use TimTim.Live

Nothing below is real. It is an example, so you can see how it works before deciding whether to join.

What happens, step by step

1Find your business, or add it. Both are free.
2Fill in your page — photos, hours, what you do.
3Create an offer. Free to make, free to run.
4TimTim shows it to people exploring this place.
5A curator recommends it to people who trust them.
6An ambassador shares it with the community.
7A customer taps the link — and the tap is counted.
8They claim or redeem the offer.
9The sale is verified before anything else happens.
10Revenue is attributed to whoever helped.
11Your dashboard updates.
12Only then does TimTim's agreed fee apply.

Example figures — not real, and not from Timbuktu

People who saw the page: 310
People who saw the offer: 182
Curator recommendations: 3
Shares by ambassadors: 7
Taps on the offer: 64
Offers claimed: 41
Redeemed in person: 28
Verified sales: $1,240

In this example TimTim's agreed fee is 10% of verified sales — so $124 of the $1,240, and the business keeps $1,116.

The real rate is agreed with each business before any offer can charge anything. There is no fee on a sale TimTim did not help create.

Find my business Add my business — free

💌 Send a musical postcard

Pick a song, write a note, and send it to someone as a musical postcard from Timbuktu. Every TimTim.Live Originals song is free to send.

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Learn how to bring 888 Lucky Beer to your local restaurants, bars, hotels, stores and festivals. Learn more at 888Craftbeer.com.

888 Lucky IPA
888 Pilsner

🛰 Space Initiative

A rocket-free spaceplane at the research and feasibility stage — nothing flies, and nothing is for sale. Explorers follow the work, send ideas, and are the first to know if suborbital flight, lunar travel or satellite delivery ever become real.

How much is known about here

14%of what we hope to know about Timbuktu

Place facts100%
Local names0%
Nearby places88%
Music0%
Local knowledge0%
Memories0%
Places to go0%

Almost nothing is recorded about Timbuktu yet, so anything you add here counts for 2× what it would in a well-documented city. The places the internet ignores are the ones worth writing down.

Questions about Timbuktu

Where is Timbuktu?: Timbuktu is a city in Tombouctou, Mali.
How many people live in Timbuktu?: About 84,208 people, according to the GeoNames dataset this page draws on. Population figures for smaller places are estimates and can be out of date.
What time zone is Timbuktu in?: Timbuktu uses the Africa/Bamako time zone.
What are the coordinates of Timbuktu?: 16.7735, -3.0074.

Languages in Timbuktu

This page is written in English. These are the languages spoken here — the ones we can already show you are links.

Read this page in French

Your Timbuktu Discovery Passport

Eight discoveries earn this place's stamp. Start free — no card, no purchase, just exploring.

Start your passport

What you can do for Timbuktu

Everything below is worth 2× here, because almost nothing is known about this place yet. The emptier a place, the more a contribution to it is worth.

Anyone can do these, right now

Collect this place's stamp
It goes in your passport.
+2
Send a musical postcard from here
+4
Share a song from here with someone
Worth more once they actually listen.
+10
Check a neighbour's contribution
Checks are what publish anything.
+40

If you know Timbuktu

These are what the page is missing. Every one of them waits for 2 neighbours to confirm it before it appears — and before it pays.

Share a memory of this place
What it was like. Nobody can add this but the people who were here.
+50
Add something only a local would know
The place people go, the thing visitors never find.
+50
Tell us about music from here
The songs, the players, the rhythms that belong to this place.
+50
Add somewhere to eat, drink or hear music
Somewhere real, that someone here would actually recommend.
+50
Tell us how this place's name is really said
The local name, and how to say it.
+30

🚀 Timbuktu to the Moon and Beyond

Everywhere on Earth can take part in what comes next. Three ways in, each eight steps long, each ending in a stamp for your passport.

Children and students
Stamp: Space Explorer
Discover how people find their way around the sky, how sound travels, and how a place on Earth connects to everything above it. Open to everyone.
Start this track
Community contributors
Stamp: Space Contributor
Explore, contribute what you know, and help your community take part. For people 18 and over.
Answer the question below to open this track.
Scientists and engineers
Stamp: Research Contributor
Bring questions, working notes and technical contributions, and help review the work of others. For people 18 and over.
Answer the question below to open this track.

One question opens the adult tracks: are you 18 or over?

See the whole Space programme

Timbuktu through the years

Nobody has shared a memory of Timbuktu yet. Every decade below is still empty — if you were here for any of them, you know something this page does not.

2020sWere you here in the 2020s? Nobody has spoken for it yet.
2010sWere you here in the 2010s? Nobody has spoken for it yet.
2000sWere you here in the 2000s? Nobody has spoken for it yet.
1990sWere you here in the 1990s? Nobody has spoken for it yet.
1980sWere you here in the 1980s? Nobody has spoken for it yet.
1970sWere you here in the 1970s? Nobody has spoken for it yet.
1960sWere you here in the 1960s? Nobody has spoken for it yet.
1950sWere you here in the 1950s? Nobody has spoken for it yet.
1940sWere you here in the 1940s? Nobody has spoken for it yet.

What is Timbuktu to you?

You don't have to be an expert. If you grew up here, live here, or your family is from here, you know something this page doesn't.

Know this place?

Tell people why it is worth the trip. Your words appear on this page.

Do you know Timbuktu?

This place is not open for contributions yet. Tell us you are from here and we will open it.

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Discover local culture in Timbuktu

Restaurants, bars, hotels and nightlife in Timbuktu — organised around the experience, not just the map pin. If you live here, you know places a map has never heard of.

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