<P> During its twelfth session, in December 1988, the World Heritage Committee (WHC) selected parts of Timbuktu's historic centre for inscription on its World Heritage list . The selection was based on three criteria: </P> <Ul> <Li> Criterion II: Timbuktu's holy places were vital to early Islamization in Africa . </Li> <Li> Criterion IV: Timbuktu's mosques show a cultural and scholarly Golden Age during the Songhay Empire . </Li> <Li> Criterion V: The construction of the mosques, still mostly original, shows the use of traditional building techniques . </Li> </Ul> <Li> Criterion II: Timbuktu's holy places were vital to early Islamization in Africa . </Li> <Li> Criterion IV: Timbuktu's mosques show a cultural and scholarly Golden Age during the Songhay Empire . </Li>

The great city in west africa known for being a center of trade and education