All images and text © Kevin Moloney

Photographed and written on assignment for The New York Times

Click for Story Text


Young Islamic students recite and write on wood tablets passages from the Koran during a class held on a street in Timbuktu, Mali. The remote and mythic city on the edge of the Sahara boasts a thousand-year history as a center of Islamic study, a salt trading center, and for centuries a difficult destination for explorers.



Men walk through the dunes at the edge of Timbuktu. The fabled city in Mali is under threat from the sands of the Sahara as desertification spreads through the Sahel region.



Doves destined for dinner meet their end in a dusty side street in Timbuktu.



A dust-blotted sun sets over the spreading edge of the Sahel at Timbuktu. Recent efforts by foreign governments and NGOs hope to stem the sand invasion.



A child plays near vendors on an ancient lane in the old city of Timbuktu.



Worshipers mingle outside the 14th-century Djinguere-Ber mosque in Timbuktu. Timbuktu's three classic mosques attract the faithful and visitors for limited tours alike.


All images and text © Kevin Moloney

Previous Page || Niger River