🇲🇷 Mauritania · Submerged site
Kumbi Saleh – Ghana Empire Harbour City, Mauritania
Ghana to Almoravid (c. 500–1200 CE) · Soninke Ghana / Almoravid / Wagadu
Ghana Empire caravan harbour 300×200 m dune-sealed at Kumbi Saleh – moated stone town 15 ha.
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25 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Submerged site
Ghana to Almoravid (c. 500–1200 CE) · Soninke Ghana / Almoravid / Wagadu
Ghana Empire caravan harbour 300×200 m dune-sealed at Kumbi Saleh – moated stone town 15 ha.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Ghana Empire (c. 700–1240 CE; South Ridge 10th–12th c) · Soninke (Wagadou Ghana Empire) / Berber Almoravid
Southern craft suburb of fabled Ghana capital, with iron bloomery row and bead workshops 35 km south of central mounds, showing Ghana's industrial hinterland; separate from UNESCO...
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Aoudaghost (c. 500–1400 CE; Berber–Ghanaian citadel) · Berber (Sanhaja) / Soninke Ghanaian conquest 1055
Berber ksar on Aoukar dune edge, Aoudaghost West preserves citadel, mosque and cavern granaries that stored caravan millet, described by al-Bakri and Ibn Hawqal; Ghana 1055 seizure...
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Tumulus
Early Bronze Age to Iron Age (2500–500 BCE) · Hallstatt / Early Iron Age
Cessa Mound — Ancillary Embankment North (Mauretania) in Adrar, Chinguetti, Cessa, Mauritania is a Early Bronze Age to Iron Age (2500–500 BCE) tumulus attr…
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Medieval (800-1200 CE) · Ghana Empire
Koumbi Saleh Market Enclosure East Wall Annex in Hodh Ech Chargui, Nema, Mauritania is a Medieval (800-1200 CE) ancient city attributed to Ghana Empire.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Medieval (800-1200 CE) · Ghana Empire
Koumbi Saleh Market Enclosure East Wall Annex — Northern Annex in Hodh Ech Chargui, Nema, Mauritania is a Medieval (800-1200 CE) ancient city attributed to Ghana Empire.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Medieval (800-1200 CE) · Ghana Empire
Koumbi Saleh Market Enclosure East Wall Annex — Eastern Outlier in Hodh Ech Chargui, Nema, Mauritania is a Medieval (800-1200 CE) ancient city attributed to Ghana Empire.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Medieval (800-1200 CE) · Ghana Empire
Koumbi Saleh Market Enclosure East Wall Annex — Western Terrace in Hodh Ech Chargui, Nema, Mauritania is a Medieval (800-1200 CE) ancient city attributed to Ghana Empire.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Medieval (800-1200 CE) · Ghana Empire
Koumbi Saleh Market Enclosure East Wall Annex — Southern Extension in Hodh Ech Chargui, Nema, Mauritania is a Medieval (800-1200 CE) ancient city attributed to Ghana Empire.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient village
Chalcolithic to Early Iron Age (1800–500 BCE) · Pre-Mauritanian / early Berber / unknown Saharan smiths
West Africa's earliest copper-mining landscape Akjoujt — 1,000 tons slag from 1500 BCE.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Oualata Painted House Courtyard 3 in Hodh Ech Chargui, Oualata, Mauritania is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Tegdaoust Aoudaghost Stone Town House C15 in Hodh El Gharbi, Aoudaghost, Mauritania is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Tichitt Stone Village Sector W13 in Tagant, Tichitt, Mauritania is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Ghana to Mali to Songhai medieval (11th c. CE foundation; 14th c. peak Ibn Battuta 1352) · Soninke → Berber → Mali Empire caravan scholars
Walata occupied 1000–, Ibn Battuta 1352, manuscript ksar.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Ghana Empire (300–1240 CE peak 800–1070 CE Wattasi/Awdaghust description) · Soninke Ghana (Awdaghust) → Wagadu
Koumbi Saleh excavated by Bonnel de Mézières 1914 and Berthier 1970s, Ghana capital 800–1240.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Ghana terminal to Almoravid capital (11th c. CE Almoravid capital 1050–1147) · Sanhaja Berber Almoravid (Ibn Yasin)
Azougui excavated by de Moraes Farias 1970s, Almoravid birthplace 1053, stone city 10 ha.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Rock art
Neolithic to Pastoral (6000–1000 BCE) · Neolithic pastoralists / Libyco-Berber
Adrar plateau quartzite guelb rock engravings west of Atar with Neolithic interdune settlement.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Ghana Empire satellite (800–1350 CE peak Awdaghust near Al Bakri) · Sanhaja Berber → Ghana Empire → Almoravid
Tegdaoust excavated by Robert & Mauny 1960–70, Ghana southern frontier caravan town 800–1350.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Medieval to Early Modern (13th–19th c; library peak 17th–18th c) · Berber / Arab / Alkhalid
13th c scholar-ksar with 20-m square minaret and 5 manuscript libraries 1400+ codices.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient village
Late Neolithic to Early Iron Age transition (1800–300 BCE) Pre-Ghana · Soninke ancestors / Tichitt Culture (agropastoralists)
250 km cuesta with 200+ Neolithic villages (1800 BCE) and earliest domesticated pearl millet 1900 BCE – West Africa's first sedentism.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient village
Neolithic to medieval (1500 BCE–17th c; historic 11th c) · Tichitt culture → Soninke Wagadu → Beidane Moors
Neolithic to oasis caravan terminus: Tichitt-culture compounds plus red-white geometric plaster houses of 11th-c Ghana twin capital Biru.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Necropolis
Medieval Ghana Empire (9th–13th c. CE) · Soninke (Ghana Empire) / Sanhaja / Berber
Dune necropolis 800 m west of Koumbi Saleh with 300 tumuli and Kufic qubba.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Medieval to Early Modern (12th–19th c) · Berber (Sanhaja) / Arab / Almoravid
Almoravid twin-ksar 12th c on Adrar scarp with 13-m minaret and caravan cisterns 300 m.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Medieval Ghana Empire / Almoravid (9th–13th c. CE) · Soninke (Ghana Empire) / Sanhaja
Artisan kasbah east of Aoudaghost with copper-bead workshops.