Stop 1 · Mali
Timbuktu
It grew rich where camel caravans carrying Saharan salt met river boats carrying West African gold. The Niger now runs some 15 km to its south.
Cities built in the desert
Five places that had no business existing where they do — each one a city raised in true desert, on trade, water engineering or sheer nerve.
The five stops
Stop 2 · Saudi Arabia
Riyadh
Its name means "the gardens", after the oasis groves that once fed it. Today it drinks desalinated seawater pumped 400 km uphill from the Gulf.
Stop 3 · United States
Las Vegas
Spanish for "the meadows", named for artesian springs that have long since run dry. The Hoover Dam, 50 km away, made the modern city possible.
Stop 4 · United States
Phoenix
Named for a city risen from the ashes of an older civilisation. Its water comes from the Colorado River via a 540 km canal across the desert.
Stop 5 · Australia
Alice Springs
Named after the wife of a telegraph superintendent, and after a waterhole that is usually bone dry. Uluru lies 450 km southwest.
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