Mauritania

Ancient Ksour

WHS Score 3.05 Votes 13 Average 3.54

The Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata are trading and religious centres that developed along the ancient Sahara caravan trade routes.

These four towns, located at the southern limits of the desert, started to blossom in the 12th century. Their medieval town centers are characterized by narrow streets, houses built around central courtyards and decorative stone architecture. Chinguetti, centered around its old Friday Mosque, became a principal gathering place for pilgrims of the Maghrib to gather on the way to Mecca.

Community Perspective: Solivagant visited Chinguetti and Oudane in 2005 when he “felt the “call of the desert” and closeness to the days of camel trains supporting Saharan trade, pilgrimages to Mecca and Islamic scholarship, more than I did in Mali”. Els in 2025 reported the construction of an asphalt road to Chinguetti, but visitor numbers are still low.

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Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata (ID: 750)
Country
Mauritania
Status
Inscribed 1996 Site history
History of Ancient Ksour
WHS Type
Cultural
Criteria
  • iii
  • iv
  • v
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
Related Resources

Community Information

  • Community Category
  • Urban landscape: African
Travel Information
No travel information
Recent Connections
View all (28) .
Connections of Ancient Ksour
Individual People
  • Théodore Monod
    Monod studied, mapped, and documented these historic cities since the early 20th century. He published extensively on: Saharan architecture, ksour (fortified cities) and their systems of adaptation to the desert, ancient manuscripts preserved in family libraries, notably in Chinguetti, trans-Saharan trade and knowledge routes, the history of Berber and Arab populations, Islam in West Africa, and oasis ecology. He was one of the first European scientists to recognize the heritage and historical importance of these ksour, long before they were widely protected or restored. The ancient Mauritanian ksour are a pillar of Théodore Monod's Saharan work: he studied them in the field, he defended them in his writings, he contributed to their international recognition as world heritage treasures.
  • Leo Africanus
    "Leo Africanus who visited the region in 1509-1510 gives a description in his book Descrittione dell'Africa: "Walata Kingdom: This is a small kingdom, and of mediocre condition compared to the other kingdoms of the blacks. In fact, the only inhabited places are three large villages and some huts spread about among the palm groves" Wiki
  • Ibn Battuta
    visited Oualata in 1352. Wrote ""My stay at Iwalatan (Oualata) lasted about fifty days; and I was shown honour and entertained by its inhabitants. It is an excessively hot place, and boasts a few small date-palms, in the shade of which they sow watermelons. Its water comes from underground waterbeds at that point, and there is plenty of mutton to be had."
Geography
  • Antipodes points
    ANCIENT KSOUR OF CHINGUETI=LAGOONS OF NEW CALEDONIA(atoll d ouvea et beautemps beaupre) N20 27 48 W12 22 00 = S20 33 37 E166 28 12
  • Sahara
    "the towns constitute a series of stages along the trans-Saharan trade route" (OUV)
  • Desert Cultural Landscapes
    Crit iii "The Ksour bear unique witness to a nomadic culture and trade in a desert environment. "
History
  • Trans Saharan trade routes
    "These four ancient towns... were built originally to serve the caravan routes that began in the 11th century CE to cross the sahara from north to south and from east to west" (AB)
  • Berbers
    Ouadane wurde 1147 vom Berberstamm der Idalwa el-Hadji gegründet... (Wiki) / Tichitt "was one of the main towns of the vast Berber empire on the edges of the Sahara, and in the following century it became an Almoravid town, founded by members of the Chorfa clan." (AB ev)
  • Almohads
    Tichitt: "it became of greater importance under Almohad rule in the 13th century because of its crucial situation on the salt route" (AB ev)
  • Almoravid dynasty
    Tichitt: "In the 11th century it was one of the main towns of the vast Berber empire on the edges of the Sahara, and in the following century it became an Almoravid town, founded by members of the Chorfa clan." (AB ev)
Ecology
  • Dunes
    Chinguetti "is seriously threatened by the encroaching desert; high sand dunes mark the western boundary and several houses have been abandoned to the encroaching sand." (wiki)
Architecture
  • Vernacular architecture
    "The mosques .. are severe, without any form of decoration or flooring, and built entirely in local materials." (AB ev)
  • Urban fabric
    "Their urban fabric is dense and closely-packed; with narrow and twisting lanes running between the blank outer walls of courtyard houses." (OUV)
  • Medina
    "the ancient homogenous form, characterized by dense occupation and the medina layout conforming with the topography, with narrow alleys and no public open spaces" (AB ev)
Damaged
  • 'Threatened' by Drought or Desertification
    Chinguetti. "The city is seriously threatened by the encroaching desert; high sand dunes mark the western boundary and several houses have been abandoned to the encroaching sand."
World Heritage Process
Religion and Belief
  • Notable mosques
    Chinguetti, the Great, "Friday Mosque" - created by the city founders sometime in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The minaret of this ancient structure is supposed to be the second oldest in continuous use anywhere in the Muslim world. At Ouadane are the remains of and old mosque, and a new one closely modelled upon it.
  • Islamic pilgrimage sites
    Chinguetti: major site for African pilgrims, principal gathering place for pilgrims of the Maghreb to gather on the way to Mecca
Human Activity
  • Salt
    Oualata (Walata) was a centre of salt trade.
Constructions
WHS on Other Lists
  • U.S. Ambassadors Fund
    Restoration of a 19th-Century Minaret in the Ancient City of Tichitt (2010), Restoration of a 14th-Century Courtyard House in the Ancient Village of Oualata, a World Heritage Site (2009), Conservation of Ancient Manuscripts in Tichitt (2001)
  • World Monuments Watch (past)
    Chinguetti Mosque (2008)
Timeline
  • Built in the 12th century
    The trans-Saharan caravan system began in the 11th C and, although all these oasis towns towns had earlier incarnations, their significance as in the OUV first occurred at the height of Almoravid power in early 12th C. E.g AB eval - Ouadane founded 1141 and Chinguetti 12th C. Their relative wealth however varied according to later shifts in trade routes (E.g Oualata benefitted from the invasion of Timbuctou by Touraegs in 1446). In general however their prosperity continued through the 14th -18th centuries
Science and Technology
  • Libraries
    Chinguetti - a historically significant Koran library
WHS Names
  • Untranslated Toponyms
    "Ksar or qsar (Maghrebi Arabic: قصر qṣer or ڭصر gser, plural qṣur; Berber: ⵉⴴⵔⵎ aghrem or ighrem, plural: igherman), plural ksars, qsars, ksour or qsour, is the North African term for "fortified village," from Arabic qaṣar (قَصَر), itself possibly loaned from Latin castrum. The term generally refers to a Berber fortified village." (Wiki)
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Community Reviews

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First published: 22/01/25.

Els Slots

Ancient Ksour

Ancient Ksour (Inscribed)

Ancient Ksour by Els Slots

I had expected these Ancient Ksour to be really remote, but Ouadane and Chinguetti in 2025 are easily reached. The 82km road from Atar to Chinguetti has recently been turned into an asphalt road via a project sponsored by the Islamic Development Bank. And Ouadane, another 120km eastwards, is accessible via a ‘piste’ (unpaved but smoothened and maintained), where driving 90 km/h is easily possible and no 4WD is needed.

Coming from the Northwest (Atar), we first spent a day and a night in Ouadane. Already on the approach you feel that you’re arriving somewhere special. The old city was built against a hill overlooking date palm plantations, with a maze of streets like a dense beehive. It is much larger than I expected it and also has preserved its outer wall and gates. It is now fully abandoned. We did a walking tour here with a local guide. It's remarkable how high the walls bordering the streets are (upper photo). Entrance to the buildings is via low wooden doors; we visited the house of one of the three founders of the city, El Hadj Yacoub. It had spaces for books and for teaching, and a balcony overlooking the city. The town’s Old Mosque looks brittle but has been restored.

The approach to Chinguetti was very different – we took the sand dunes shortcut route from Ouadane via the oasis of Tenewchert, and you’ll end up seeing the minaret of the Old (First) Mosque appearing from the sand. …

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First published: 02/11/19.

Michael Novins

Ancient Ksour

Ancient Ksour (Inscribed)

Ancient Ksour by Michael Novins

I visited Mauritania in October 2019. I flew into Nouakchott (very easy to obtain visa on arrival), where I visited the camel market and Port de Peche, the city's fishing port, which houses the largest fleet of traditional wooden fishing boats on the West African coast. It took us eight hours to drive northeast from Nouakchott, on the Atlantic coast of Mauritania, to Chinguetti in the Sahara, where we arrived just in time to watch the sunset from atop nearby sand dunes over the ancient Berber town. The next day we drove as far as the road goes in eastern Mauritania to Ouadane’s old town, built in the Middle Ages and now largely in ruins. I made my arrangements with Hademine at Time for Mauritania.

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First published: 01/05/05.

Solivagant

Ancient Ksour

Ancient Ksour (Inscribed)

Ancient Ksour by Solivagant

Looking at a map of Africa/Mauritania and, bearing in mind the lack of any review on this site so far, you might conclude that the Ksour of Mauritania do not receive many tourist visits! In fact 3 very cheap charter flights each week (October –April) between France and the northern town of Attar bring relatively large numbers of (mainly French?) tourists to Chinguetti and Ouadane. The other 2 inscribed towns are further east and south – more appropriate perhaps for those travelling on to Mali (Oualata is the next “town” to Timbuctoo – only a week or so’s camel journey away!).

If you read the ICOMOS review on the UNESCO web site you will see that ICOMOS had to have its arms twisted to make a positive recommendation – largely because of the towns’ lack of preservation. “Old Chinguetti” consists of a few lanes of stone built structures – many empty or falling down but reasonably faithfully preserving the 12h century layout together with some of the decorative features. The Mosque itself (Photo – top) is well preserved and its attractive tower looks to have been largely reconstructed (Non Muslims are not allowed to enter but you can see/hear the religious activity from its doors). We received the usual statement about it being the “7th most holy city of (Sunni) Islam”. On enquiring about the 4th to 6 th (after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem of course) we were given a long list of candidates including Cairo, Kairouan, …

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