Chap. LXVIII. GROUNDPLAN OF TIMBUKTU. 477 
paces ; while my intelligent friend Mohammed ben 
f Aish assured me that, after measuring it with the 
greatest accuracy, he found it to be 262 French feet 
in length, by 194 in width.* 
If this building, which stands just at the western 
extremity, and forms the south-western corner of the 
town, were situated in the centre, it would be in- 
finitely more imposing ; but it is evident that in for- 
mer times the mosque was surrounded by buildings on 
the western side. The city formerly was twice as large. 
While we were surveying this noble pile, numbers 
of people collected round us, — this being the quarter 
inhabited principally by the Fulbe, or Fullan, — and 
when we turned our steps homewards, they followed us 
along the streets through the market, which was now 
empty, but without making the least hostile manifes- 
tation. On the contrary, many of them gave me 
their hands. 
Soon after my arrival in the place, I had sent home 
a small plan of the town. This I now found to be 
inaccurate in some respects ; and I here therefore 
subjoin a more correct plan of the town, although on 
a rather small scale, — the circumstances under which 
I resided there not having allowed me to survey the 
greater part of it accurately enough for a more minute 
delineation. 
The city of Timbuktu, according to Dr. Petermann's 
* I recommend the reader who takes any interest in the subject 
to read the whole passage of Caillie relating to this mosque, 
English ed. vol. ii. p. 71. The Tawati took the measurement with 
my line. 
