The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa's City of Gold

In the early nineteenth century, no place burned more brightly in the European imagination than the lost city of Timbuktu. Africa's legendary City of Gold held the promise of wealth and fame for the first explorer to make it there. Major Alexander Gordon Laing, a handsome and confident army officer, was convinced that Timbuktu was his destiny and his ticket to glory. The Race for Timbuktu follows Laing's arduous trek across an unforgiving Sahara, battling unpredictable elements, crippling illness, vicious attacks, and the clock, to be the first white man in centuries to reach the gates of Timbuktu. An emotionally charged, action-packed, utterly spellbinding adventure, The Race for Timbuktu offers a look at the extraordinary people and pivotal events of African exploration that changed the course of history and the shape of the modern world.