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Mali

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office advise against all travel to the provinces of Tombouctou, Kidal, Gao and Mopti, and parts of the provinces of Kayes, Koulikoro and Segou. All but essential travel to the rest of Mali is also warned against. Click here for more information.

Like an exquisite sandcastle formed in a harsh desert landscape, Mali is blessed by an extraordinary amount of beauty, wonders, talents and knowledge.

Yet for now, its landscapes, monuments and stories are off-limits, sealed from tourists by a conflict that is threatening the very culture of Mali.

The heart of the nation is Bamako, where Ngoni and Kora musicians play to dancing crowds from all ethnicities, while in the Dogon country villages still cling to the cliffs as they did in ancient times.

Further west, Fula women strap silver jewelry to their ears and their belongings to donkeys, forming caravans worthy of beauty pageants as they march across the hamada (dry, dusty scrubland).

And in the northeast, the writings of ancient African civilizations remain locked in the beautiful libraries of Timbuktu, until a new dawn comes for Mali, and they – and it – can be rediscovered by travelers.

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