Azougui is now a small village at the bottom of a valley just outside the city of Atar. Here lies a modest archaeological site dating back to the early Almohavids (11th century). It seems to be on the itinerary of every tour covering Mauritania, so we made a quick visit as well in the late afternoon. Those who later became known as the Almohavids chose a very fine setting, at the foot of the mountains. Their date palm groves still dominate the landscape.

The main site lies within a walled and gated compound, of which the key can be obtained in the white building across the street. So it is secured and not smeared by litter or graffiti. It’s about the size of a football field, filled with stone foundations of several structures (some may have collapsed fairly recently, the ICOMOS evaluation says that there were still upstanding remains of the fortress visible in the 1950s). Its main issue however is that excavations seem to have stopped at a certain moment and there are no plans to resume them (No Money). So there’s no interpretation on site and there seems so much more potential to be uncovered or restored. 

The Mauritanian version of its history (also told by our guide) is that the empire of the Almohavids hails from here. They controlled a territory stretching from Spain to Senegal and were responsible for the Islamisation of the western Maghreb. The Mauritanian proto-Almohavids returned to this fortress/palace at Azougui after they and other cooperating groupings helped spread Islam across the wider region and founded Marrakech. 

The site was put forward for nomination once in 2005, but ICOMOS was very skeptical about its place within Almohavid history and the age of its date palm plantations, and it ended at a Deferral with the potential to be part of a wider nomination.