Frank T. Kryza Jr.'s Timbuktu: The Epic Journey to Uncover Africa's City of Gold

V: I won’t comment on the writing or story as I have not fully read the book - however the images in the are such poor resolution, they can hardly be understood. What is the point in printing pictures if they are so terrible? It really lowers the quality of the book. The paperback cover is also very thin, and lacks the rigidity that a normal paperback has. This looks very much like a poor homemade print job...

United Kingdom on Dec 15, 2019

Aguellid Semous: Tout est correct.

United Kingdom on Oct 04, 2017

Amazon Customer: Sit was a good story with footnotes to say where the evidence came from. The author told the story in detail, but in the way a story teller would tell an exciting story and with feeling for the character and places. It brings to life a story that was not well know to our modertime. The stories of Burton,Speke, Livingston, and Stanley are better known because the lived and wrote wonderful books. Now the other side of Africa's exploration by Europeans is brought to our modern times.

United States on Oct 03, 2017

Just-in-time: The Race for Timbuktu is an interesting history of the fabled city and the Niger River. However, I would suggest that you find some maps of West
Africa to follow the routes of the various expeditions. I read the e-book version, and like nearly every e-book there are errors in the grammar, and spelling. It is also a slow ponderous read much like the camels crossing the Sahara desert. Much of the book contains correspondence from the expeditions leaders to the British consul in Tripoli, also to tribal leaders, and the French and American consulates. The book captures the characteristics of the time period, people and terrain in much detail, including the ongoing distrust between expedition leaders, tribal leaders, the British, and French personnel. The author also covers the ongoing war of words between the French and British as to who ultimately found Timbuktu first. In the end Timbuktu was not at all the city of golden streets and walls of precious gems, but more like current day Mogadishu. Finally, would I tell a friend this is a must read? No.

United States on Sep 07, 2017

Bruce Altshuler: This is a fine well researched book on a portion of early 19th Century African exploration by Gordon Laing and other courageous
explorers of from the 1820's . Most of these explorers died by Arab guides or thieves or suffered unbearable hardships from
the Sahara Desert or disease solely to be the first to reach Timbuktu and discover the source of the Niger River. The author's
ability to form a coherent and convincing narrative is truly extraordinary.

United States on May 12, 2017

pearl: アフリカ探検といえば19世紀後半，スタンレー，リヴィングストンが有名であるが，これに先立つこと約30年，1820年代に西アフリカの秘境トンブクトゥに挑んだイギリス人探検家たちを描くノンフィクション．西アフリカの奥地，現在はマリ共和国にあるトンブクトゥは，16世紀には多量の金を産出し，交易の中心として栄えたが，ヨーロッパ人は足を踏みいれたことがなく幻の都市であった．1824年，フランス地理協会がトンブクトゥへの到達，生還に1万フランの賞金を提唱したことをきっかけに，多くの探検家がこれに挑戦した．

イギリス人のライング(Alexander Gordon Laing)，クラッパートン(Hugh...

Japan on Jan 02, 2016

Ralph J. Turner: A few years ago I was contacted by Deni Cooperrider, who's husband was staying in a hotel in Timbuctu. Bob Coopperrider, her husband, had discovered that the host at the hotel was Miranda Dodd. Now Miranda was the daughter of Terry Dodd who had rented our old house for some years. To a great extent Miranda had grown up on our property and with our books. I knew that she had visited Africa while she was in College, or afterward, but I didn't know that she had married a Timbuctu chieftan and that they had a hotel. Bob Cooperridder and I had collected firewood together in the 70s and shared an old Farmall Cub tractor. Bob was a teacher then but was interested in organic farming. He later edited a Tilth periodical. He eventually retired and found himself helping Africans set up grain cleaning operations and other agricultural functions. At the hotel in Timbuctu, Miranda and Bob found that they had lived on the same road less than a mile apart. When this book became available I thought that perhaps I should know more about Timbuctu. I knew that it was solely or mostly made of earthen structures and was a very old crossroad city of importance. And there was a hint of an ancient library...

United States on Aug 30, 2015

Phillip Gobe: An intimate account of the history and rivalry of the race to be the first colonial power to explore and commercialize/colonize the perceived richest of the interior of Africa pitted against the suspicions (well founded) of local leaders and the hostile environment of crossing the Sahara. Well written both as a historical account and a great adventure. An unbelievable story of what men were willing to endure to be able to publish the first historical account of the region. I enjoyed every minute of the race!

United States on May 01, 2014

phyllis gibbon robb: enjoyed this book, felt very much like i was on the journey with these victorian gentlemen. It was brutal at times but quite real in the discriptions of every day life for the explorers

United Kingdom on Feb 26, 2013