About Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in West Africa
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by four other African countries: Senegal, Mali, Algeria and Western Sahara as well as the Atlantic Ocean.
Almost no tourism
Mauritania does not receive many foreign visitors. In fact, it is one of the world’s least-visited countries, receiving only around 30,000 visitors per year. By contrast, neighbouring Senegal receives more than 1 million visitors per year and Morocco receives around 10 million.
Map of Mauritania
Of the 30,000 that do arrive, many are passing through between Morocco and Senegal. Others arrive on package tours based out of Atar. Only a handful stay more than a week or two and precious few venture east towards the Saharan interior.
Mostly desert...
Most of the country is desert (part of the Sahara Desert) and agriculture is only possible in the far south, close to the Senegal River.
...which is expanding
The desert is also expanding south due to prolonged and recurrent droughts in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. This was exacerbated by overgrazing, deforestation and poor farming methods. In the 1980s it was estimated that the desert was advancing at a rate of six kilometres per year. Sand dunes invaded the capital Nouakchott until the government secured international help to stabilise the dunes and planted 250,000 palm trees to act as a protective barrier.
My two young helpers from the well at Tidjikja
Droughts
The droughts have forced many nomads and subsistence farmers into the cities. However, half the population still depends on agriculture and livestock for a living. Just 0.44% of Mauritania’s area is arable land (compare this to nearly 25% for the United Kingdom and 6% for Australia).
Constant desert wind
The Harmattan is the prevailing wind and blows from the northeast or east throughout the long dry season. It is hot, dry and usually carries large amounts of dust. This is why we sometimes had to wrap our turbans over our eyes to be able to see.
People
Mauritania was estimated to have 3.5 million people in July 2014, of which 40% are under the age of 15. 20% of Mauritanians live on less than US$1.25 per day.
Most of Mauritania is desert as shown on the map below.
Sources: The CIA World Factbook, Wikipedia
Where to go next: