timbuktu

noun

1. a town in central Mali, W Africa, near the Niger River.French Tombouctou.
2. any faraway place.

noun

1. a town in central Mali, on the River Niger: terminus of a trans-Saharan caravan route; a great Muslim centre (14th–16th centuries). Pop: 31 973 (1998)French name: Tombouctou
2. any distant or outlandish placefrom here to Timbuktu

city on the southern edge of the Sahara desert, older spelling Timbuctoo, used allusively in English for “most distant place imaginable” from at least 1863. A remote town in western Africa. Figuratively, it is a faraway and unknown place. City in central Mali, in western Africa, near the Niger River.