44. Timbuktu, Mali
Timbuktu has long become a metaphor in culture for any lost and distant place, and the reason for that is because of this mythical city that has held the collective imagination of many Europeans for a long time. Some people today still even believe that it is not a real place but only a place of myth and mystery.

Well, I’m here to tell you Timbuktu is alive and real, and it is as incredible to see as one might imagine. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean you can visit it. It is currently the center of a warzone, dangerous even for its own people much less tourists. Maybe one day it will be liberated and re-open.