They say all true stories end in death. Smara, The Forbidden City is a true story. In the fall of 1930, a young Frenchman named Michel Vieuchange staggered out of the Moroccan desert into the town of Tiznit where he collapsed, wracked by dysentery; a few days later, he was dead. Two months earlier, on the evening of September 10, Vieuchange had stripped off his European clothing, draped himself in the costume of a Berber woman, and set off into the unexplored regions of southern Morocco. His goal: discovering the mysterious ruins of Smara, a great walled city that had been built and then abandoned centuries before. Mentioned only as a stopping place for nomads, the city's exact location was not known, and no European had ever laid eyes on it. Vieuchange was determined to be the first. Driven by romanticism, the poetry of Rimbaud and Whitman, and the philosophy of Nietzsche, Vieuchange sought to test himself against the dangers and discomforts of the North African desert in pursuit of a dream. At that time, warring tribes inhabited southern Morocco, and travel there was a perilous undertaking. Speaking neither Berber nor Arabic, Vieuchange wandered for weeks in the desert at the mercy of his guides. When at last he reached Smara, he could stay for only three hours. Was this brief glimpse of a ruined city worth the price of his life? Read Vieuchange's chronicle of his journey, published as Smara, The Forbidden City, and decide for yourself.

Double sided travel map at the scale of 1:1,700,000. Distinguishes roads ranging from primary paved roads to other roads or tracks. Legend includes international airport/national airports, air fields, gasoline/petrol stations, post office, hospital/medical facilities, hotels, motels/lodging, resthouse or hostel, campsites or huts, museums, border crossings, no border crossings, points of interest, crafts/pottery, archaelogical sites, historic ruins or sites, mines, bus station, forts, mosques, churches/missions, oasis, caves, fishing ports, beaches, hiking/trekking. Includes inset map of Bamako and Timbuktu, road distance chart and extensive index.

The Map distinguishes roads ranging from highways to streets. Legend includes railways, border crossings, national parks, international airports, airports/airfields, yacht harbours, points of interest / Vista, mosques, archaeological sites, gas stations. The western portion of the wind-swept Sahara is largely occupied by nomadic tribesmen in the north and pastoral peoples in the south. It is an interesting and photogenic country, popular with Europeans.

Discover Mauritania and Western Sahara with the colourful Gizi Map. The best way to prepare your trip, to plan your itinerary, and to travel independently. Localities names are indicated in Latin and Arabic alphabets; the legend is in 6 languages (English and Arabic included); inset map of downtown Nouakchott.

Folded road and travel map in color. Scale 1:2,400,000. Distinguishes roads ranging from primary paved roads to other roads or tracks. Legend includes international airport/national airports, air fields, gasoline/petrol stations, post office, hospital/medical facilities, hotels, motels/lodging, resthouse or hostel, campsites or huts, museums, border crossings, no border crossings, points of interest, crafts/pottery, archaelogical sites, historic ruins or sites, mines, bus station, forts, mosques, churches/missions, oasis, caves, fishing ports, beaches, hiking/trekking. Includes inset map of Bamako and Timbuktu, road distance chart and extensive index.

Traveling with Mark Jenkins is a mixture of the daring and the dangerous, the dramatic and the absurd. Here, he and three friends, with the aid of a remarkably intuitive African guide, set out to attempt the first descent of the Niger River, the legendary city of Timbuktu their final goal. Along the way, they are attacked by killer bees, charged by hippos, stalked by crocodiles. They pass through villages where every female child has undergone a clitorectomy, stumble upon a group of completely blind men living in the bush, dance with a hundred naked women. That Jenkins reaches his goal, riding alone across the Sahara on a motorcycle, stands in sharp contrast to what befell those who first tried to find Timbuktu and whose fates the author interweaves with the narrative of his own adventures.