1799-1838

In 1827 the French Geographic Society offered a reward for the first European to reach Timbuktu and return. Already accustomed to the hardship of transatlantic voyages, Caillié—a French explorer known in Senegal as "Abd Allah"—embarked on a long desert crossing, after which he finally reached Timbuktu on April 20, 1828. The recollections of his journey were published in 1830. A stamp was released in 1999 by the French government to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of his birth.