| | World Heritage Review #13 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06) |
 | | "Nowadays", stresses the head of the Timbuktu Cultural Mission, "sources of finance for the mosques have dwindled due to the weak purchasing power of the middle classes and of the ulema" (doctors of the faith). |
 | | The head of the Timbuktu Cultural Mission acknowledges that the pilot works scheme for mosque restoration, organised in 1996 by the Timbuktu Cultural Mission in conjunction with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, was a crucial measure in this situation of self-managed restoration. |
 | | What is more, after seven centuries of existence, the survival of Timbuktu's wonderful architecture appears to be guaranteed in so far as the knowledge of the masons, who are the building's true architects, is supported by the material and financial means that cultural tourism can guarantee. |
| whc.unesco.org /whreview/article7.html (1579 words) |