Mauritania

Top Travel Highlights in Mauritania

The Ancient Caravan Cities (UNESCO World Heritage Sites)

• Chinguetti: Once the seventh holiest city of Islam and a major trans-Saharan trading hub, this medieval mud-brick town is slowly being swallowed by shifting golden dunes. The highlight is visiting the centuries-old private family libraries, which protect thousands of medieval manuscripts.
• Ouadane: Older and more rugged than Chinguetti, Ouadane climbs up a rocky cliff side. Its’ stone ruins and well-preserved 15th-century mosque provide a window into the ancient salt and gold trade routes.

• Terjit Oasis: Hidden deep between sheer sandstone canyon walls, Terjit is a paradox – a thick forest of palm trees and freshwater rock pools tucked away inside the searing Sahara. It’s an ideal place for travelers to wash off the desert dust and cool down.
• Amogjar Pass: A dramatic mountain pass cutting through the Adrar plateau near Atar. The canyon walls are lined with prehistoric rock art and petroglyphs depicting elephants, giraffes, and crocodiles – proof of a time thousands of years ago when the Sahara was a wet savanna.

Natural Wonders & Monoliths

• Guelb er Richat (The Eye of the Sahara): A massive, 50-kilometer-wide geological anomaly consisting of concentric rock rings. While its perfectly circular “bull’s-eye” shape is famous for being clearly visible from outer space, ground-level 4×4 expeditions reveal striking, otherworldly terrain that stretches to every horizon.
• Ben Amera Monolith: Rising out of the flat desert plains, Ben Amera is the world’s second-largest monolithic rock (behind Australia’s Uluru). It is a beautiful, colossal black stone mountain that serves as a legendary wild camping site under the stars.

Coast & Marine 

• Banc d’Arguin National Park: A massive UNESCO World Heritage maritime reserve where the huge Sahara dunes crash directly into the Atlantic. It hosts the planet’s largest concentration of wintering migratory wading birds, including millions of flamingos, pelicans, and terns.
• The Port de Pêche (Nouakchott): The capital’s most colorful cultural experience. Every afternoon, hundreds of brightly painted, traditional wooden pirogues (fishing boats) battle the Atlantic surf to bring in the daily catch, turning the beach into a chaotic, and booming market.

• For extreme adventure seekers, Mauritania is home to one of the longest, heaviest, and most famous trains in the world. Stretching up to 3 kilometers long, it hauls iron ore 700 kilometers from the mines of Zouérat across the open desert to the coast of Nouadhibou. Travelers can either ride the rugged open-top cargo hoppers or book a spot in the charter passenger car.