A city between two wadis, a caravan centre for the salt, gold and date trade, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a place of sages and scholars. Ouadâne is probably the most picturesque town in the Adrar.
Ouadâne suddenly appears, perched on a hill dotted with palm trees and buildings in the middle of the sandy expanses. Its dwellings, now in ruins, blend into the red rock of the hill on which the village stands. It was founded by the Berbers in 1147 and is located on the edge of the Adrar, 120 km north-east of Chinguetti. For 400 years, it was a flourishing caravan centre and a transit route for the date, salt and gold trade.
The hill is dominated by the two-century-old New Mosque, while at the foot of the town is the 14th-century Old Mosque. At one time, Ouadâne was also an important cultural centre and its 23 libraries, now private, still contain 3,000 manuscripts. It was here that the first university in the desert was founded and the first manuscript in Mauritania was found. The heart of the ancient village is the “rue de 40 Savants”, a street that links the two mosques. Forty kilometres from the city is the crater of Guelb er Richat, whose bizarre geological conformation is worth a look. It is a series of concentric ridges 200 metres high and about 500 metres wide, created by the action of atmospheric agents.
