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Much of the land is dry and inhospitable and many locations are difficult to reach without long journeys in 4-wheel drive vehicles. Drawbacks aside, Mauritania is a fascinating country with a colourful, indigenous Moorish population.

The capital of Mauritania is a new city created in 1960. It lies near the sea in a desert landscape of low dunes scattered with thorn bushes, on a site adjoining an old Moorish settlement, the Ksar. The modern buildings maintain the traditional Berber style of architecture. The following places are worth visiting: the Plage du Wharf, the mosque, the Ksar and its market, the African market and the camel market, the crafts centre, the Maison de la Culture and the carpet factory.

Possibly Mauritania’s best attraction, this national park is a vast area of islands and coastline located on the Atlantic desert coast midway between Nouakchott and Nouâdhibou. The park, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, is one of the world’s largest bird sanctuaries and provides a shelter for over two million migrant birds from northern Europe. There are also several archaeological sites on the islands.

Mauritania’s coast is essentially an 800km-(500 mile-) long sandy beach, all but devoid of vegetation but supporting an astonishingly large and varied population of birds. The waters are equally rich in fish and, consequently, despite the shortage of fresh water, some coastal stretches are inhabited by people. A growing port and centre of the fishing industry, Nouâdhibou is situated on a peninsula at the northern end of the Bay of Levrier. Inland, the landscape is empty desert.
One tribe, halfway between Nouakchott and Nouâdhibou, survives through a symbiotic relationship with wild dolphins: the marine mammals drive fish towards the shore, the tribesmen swim out with nets, and both get their share. Foreign trawlers, however, are rapidly depleting offshore fish stocks.

It is important to check on conditions for travel before setting out for this region as government permission may be necessary. The Adrar is a spectacular massif of pink and brown plateaux gilded with dunes and intersected by deep canyons sheltering palm groves. It lies in the north central part of the country, and begins about 320km (200 miles) northeast of Nouakchott. Atâr, capital of the region, is an oasis lying on the route of salt caravans. It is the market centre for the nomads of northern Mauritania and has an old quarter, the Ksar, with flat-roofed houses and a fine palm grove. The oasis of Azoughui was the Almoravid capital in the 11th and 12th centuries, and remains of fortified buildings from this period can still be seen. A whole-day excursion from Atar leads over the breathtaking mountain pass of Homogjar to Chinguetti, a holy city of Islam, founded in the 13th century, and now listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. The city has a medieval mosque and a library housing ancient manuscripts, but much of the old town is disappearing under the encroaching drifts of sand.

It is worth making a tour of the Affolé and Assaba regions, south and southeast of the Tagant, via Kiffa, Tamchakett and Ayoun el Atrous, to the wild plateaux of El Agher. The interesting archaeological sites include Koumbi Saleh, once capital of the Ghana Empire, 70km (45 miles) from Timbedra along a good track. Near Tamchakett is Tagdawst, which has been identified as ‘Aoudaghost’, an ancient capital of a Berber empire. Oualata lies 100km (60 miles) from Néma at the end of a desert track. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Oualata was at one time among the greatest caravan entrepôts of the Sahara. A fortified medieval town built in terraces up a rocky peak, it has for centuries been a place of refuge for scholars and has a fine library. The Muslim cemetery of Tirzet is nearby.