René Caillié Reaches Timbuktu

Date: April 20, 1828 • Location: Timbuktu, Mali

French explorer René Caillié reached Timbuktu in present-day Mali, and later received a 9,000-franc prize from the Société de Géographie for being the first European to return with a description of the city.

Auguste René Caillié was a French explorer and the first European to return alive from the town of Timbuktu. Caillié had been preceded at Timbuktu by a British officer, Major Gordon Laing, who was murdered in September 1826 on leaving the city. Caillié was therefore the first to return alive.