Chinguetti (شنقيط)

Muslims consider the oasis town of Chinguetti to be the seventh holiest city of Islam. Chinguetti is a ksar and a medieval trading center. The town was founded in the 13th century but some of the buildings are even older. The town is surrounded by sand dunes and it is seriously threatened by the encroaching desert. It is split in two by a wadi, with the old town on one side and the newer part on the other.

There are some interesting things to see in Chinguetti. The fort and the mosque are thought to be founded around 1000 AD and are older than the town itself. Most houses are contructed in the indigenous Saharan architecture of reddish dry-stone and mud-brick techniques with flat roofs timbered from palm trees. Many doors of the older buildings are made from acacia trees, which don't grow in the area anymore nowadays.

The route from Atâr to Chinguetti boasts a fantastic mountainous landscape, but the road has some hair-raising turns in it.

There is only one place in town where you can stay. Chinguetti is 470 km northeast of Nouakchott.