On 18th of August 1826, Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing travelling across the Sahara, became the first European to reach the fabled trading city of Timbuktu.
Alexander Gordon Laing was born in Edinburgh in 1794 and educated at the University. In 1811, he went to Barbados as clerk to his maternal uncle Colonel Gabriel Gordon.
His military career started in 1813. In 1822 he transferred into the Royal African Colonial Corps as a captain. In that year, while with his regiment at Sierra Leone, he was sent by the governor Sir Charles MacCarthy, to the Mandingo country, with the double object of opening up commerce and endeavouring to abolish the slave trade in that region.
In his expedition to find the source of the River Niger he was supported by Joseph Banks. Laing left England in February 1825, and at Tripoli on 14 July he married Emma Warrington, daughter of the British consul. Two days later, leaving his bride behind, he started to cross the Sahara, accompanied by a sheikh who was subsequently accused of planning his murder.
He arrived in Timbuktu on 18th of August but his situation was very unsafe. Soon after leaving the city he was murdered by his escorts. In 1830 he was posthumously awarded a Gold Medal by the French Société de Géographie. His papers and journals were never recovered. In 1903, the French government placed a tablet bearing Laing’s name and the date of his visit on the house occupied by him during his 38-day stay in Timbuktu. This house, located in the Djingareiber district, inside the old town, was declared a National Heritage by decree of 18 December 1992.
in 1828 René Caillié reached Timbuktu two years after Laing and by returning alive was able to claim the 9,000-franc prize from the Société de Géographie.