🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Chinguetti
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 · Archaeological wonder
Dhar Tagant (Tagant Plateau & Dhar Valleys)
Late Neolithic to medieval (1800 BCE–11th c CE) · Tichitt Culture / Sanhaja pastoralists
400 km intermediate cuesta with Neolithic hamlets, karkur tumuli and copper axes bridging Tichitt–Adrar Neolithic diffusion corridor.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient village
Dhar Tichitt
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
Dhar Walata (Oualata)
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 · Ancient city
Koumbi Saleh
Medieval Ghana Empire (c.400–1240 CE; flourished 800–1200) · Soninke (Ghana Empire) / Berber / Islamic traders
Postulated capital of Ghana (Wagadou) Empire (5th–13th c CE) controlling trans-Saharan gold-salt trade.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Necropolis
Koumbi Saleh West 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
Ouadane (Wadan)
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
Ouadane — Chinguetti-Linked Caravan Ksar
Medieval Almoravid foundation 1147 CE, gold-salt era · Berber Almoravid → Mali gold trade
Ouadane 1147 Almoravid ksar, caravan to Chinguetti 100 km.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Natural formation
Richat Structure (Atlantis Hypothesis)
Cretaceous 100 Ma formation; Atlantis proposed 9600 BCE · Natural geological; Atlantis = Plato allegory @ 360 BCE
Concentric circular erosional dome in Sahara (100 Ma igneous intrusion) promoted since 2018 YouTube as Atlantis capital matching Plato's ringed city.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Submerged site
Richat Structure – Second Richat Semsiyat Dome Pseudo-Extension
Pseudoarchaeology (2018–present) · Pseudoarchaeology (Richat extension)
Second Richat Semsiyat dome pseudo-harbour at 400 m asl – sandstone dome fracture south of main eye.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Tegdaoust (Aoudaghost)
Medieval Ghana Empire (Wagadu) / Almoravid (7th–17th c; peak 10th–13th c) · Soninke (Wagadu) / Sanhaja Berber
12 ha stone citadel identified as Ghana Empire's gold entrepôt Awdaghust with Tagant artisan quarters and central mosque.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Tegdaoust (Aoudaghost) East Kasbah
Medieval Ghana Empire / Almoravid (9th–13th c. CE) · Soninke (Ghana Empire) / Sanhaja
Artisan kasbah east of Aoudaghost with copper-bead workshops.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Ancient city
Tichitt — Stone Walled Village Cliff Neo-Sahara
Neolithic agro-pastoral (2000–500 BCE Tichitt Tradition) · Tichitt Tradition (Soninke antecedent, Ghana Empire ancestor)
Tichitt excavated by Munson 1971, 400 Dhar sites 2000–500 BCE, Ghana Empire antecedent, UNESCO tentative.