Chinguetti

Chinguetti

A ksar and a medieval trading center in northern Mauritania, Chinguetti is situated on the Adrar plateau, east of Atar. The small town, founded in the 13th century as a hub for several trans-Saharan trade routes, still attracts a handful of visitors who admire its spare architecture, landscape and ancient libraries. The town is under serious threat from the encroachment of the desert, with high sand dunes marking the western border, and many houses now standing abandoned in the sand. The town is divided by a wadi. On one side is the old sector and on the other the new sector. The local Saharan architecture of the older sectors of the town is characterized by houses built of reddish-colored dry stone and mud brick, with flat, palm-wood roofs. Many of these older houses have hand-hewn doors carved out of huge, ancient acacia trees that have long since disappeared from the area. Among the town's notable buildings are the Friday Mosque of Chinguetti, an ancient dry-stone structure with a square minaret decorated with a finial of five ostrich eggs. It is widely regarded by Mauritanians as the national symbol of the country. The other landmarks are the former French Legion fortress and a tall water tower. Chinguetti's old quarter contains five significant manuscript libraries of scientific and Qur'anic texts, many of which date from the later Middle Ages. Chinguetti, as well as the dune towns of Ouadane, Tichitt and Oualata, were designated World Heritage sites by UNESCO in 1996.