Four places that show the city as it is. You start at the Saudi Mosque — officially the King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Mosque — the most imposing building in central Nouakchott, built with Saudi funding, sand-coloured, with two tall minarets. Then you head ten kilometres out of the centre: the buildings fall away and the world's second largest camel market appears, hundreds of dromedaries divided into herds with their herders around them. In Mauritania the dromedary is not simply livestock; it is an emblematic animal, woven into daily life. Next comes the fish market, where crates are unloaded from small boats returning from the shallow coastal waters with nets, lines and traps; some of the catch is salted or dried before sale. You finish at the National Museum of Mauritania in the city centre, in a 1972 building constructed in cooperation with China, whose archaeological and ethnographic collections trace millennia of human settlement here.
🇲🇷 Mauritania
Nouakchott
What to see
Awleigatt National Park
Awleigatt National Park is Mauritania's flagship destination for domestic and responsible ecotourism, and the country's first fully integrated wildlife, botanical and tourism complex. The reserve holds more than fifteen species of rare wild animals, both grazers and predators, that had vanished or come close to disappearing from the Mauritanian wild through drought; hundreds of head — African antelopes, ostriches and oryx among them — have been brought in from countries such as South Africa and Senegal for reintroduction, and dedicated enclosures allow the animals to acclimatise under scientific monitoring before release. In terms of facilities, the park offers an eco-lodge with equipped rooms and family suites, along with a cluster of authentic Mauritanian tents pitched directly opposite the grazing grounds of the wild antelopes, plus an eco-restaurant and modern halls running entirely on clean solar power. The reserve lies in the department of Ouad Naga, in the commune of Awleigatt, only about 65 km from Nouakchott along the Route de l'Espoir, making it an easy weekend escape; it covers 16 km² (1,600 hectares) marked by abundant groundwater and a plant cover that holds back desertification. It is finally an educational family destination: a safe setting for children and school groups to encounter wildlife at close range and build environmental awareness, with several kilometres of graded internal tracks that let visitors drive through to watch the animals and the artificial lake.
Ajouer (Trarza) — Dunes, Plains and Steppe Villages near Boutilimit
Ajouer is a Mauritanian commune and village in the Trarza region, in the south-west of the country. Locally the name is attached to more than one place within the same region: there is the central commune of Ajouer, administratively part of the department of Boutilimit, and the village of Ajouer Tenhemmed, in the commune of Boutalhaya in the department of R'Kiz. The area lies in a stretch of sand dunes and desert plains characteristic of south-western Mauritania, and the central commune brings together several villages and settlements, among them Ajouer centre, Betembeskit, El Agrich, El Manar and Es-Sourour, El Faouz and Kendellek. Life here is the everyday life of the Trarza steppe: herds of camels and sheep, wells where families gather, pastures that turn green after the rains and briefly transform the plains into a carpet drawing herders from every direction, and a hospitality that is offered before it is asked for. For the visitor, that is precisely its value: an authentic village landscape far from the tourist routes, the chance to see daily life in small settlements, and the proximity of Boutilimit, known for its mahadras and its scholarly memory. Ajouer is not a stop for monuments but a human and natural one on the road south, easily fitted into a circuit combining the Trarza, Lake R'Kiz and the river valley.
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