Termites and sandstorms have taken a toll on the manuscripts. Most were locked in trunks or kept on dusty shelves for centuries. Timbuktu, Mali.

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Africa /Mali/Timbuktu/Termites and sandstorms have taken a toll on the manuscripts. Most were locked in trunks or kept on dusty shelves for centuries, and their pages are brittle and crumbling, waterlogged and termite-eaten.© Horst Friedrichs

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Photo credit: © horst friedrichs / Alamy / Afripics
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