Ouadane or Wādān is a small town in the desert region of central Mauritania, situated on the southern edge of the Adrar Plateau, 93 km northeast of Chinguetti. The town was a staging post in the trans-Saharan trade and for caravans transporting slabs of salt from the mines at Idjil.
Old tower, Ouadane
Mosque of old Ouadane
Reconstructed house of el-Hadj Ethmane, one of the founders of Ouadane
New town of Ouadane: Building constructed in traditional style
Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to the north and northwest, Algeria to the northeast, Mali to the east and southeast, and Senegal to the southwest. By land area Mauritania is the 11th-largest country in Africa and 28th-largest in the world; 90% of its territory is in the Sahara. Most of its population of some 4.3 million lives in the temperate south of the country, with roughly a third concentrated in the capital and largest city, Nouakchott, on the Atlantic coast.
Rock art in the Sahara Desert
The Portuguese Empire ruled Arguin (Portuguese: Arguim) from 1445, after Prince Henry the Navigator set up a feitoria, until 1633.
After the Portuguese, the Dutch, and then the French, took control of Arguin until abandoning it in 1685.
Nouakchott is the capital and the largest city of Mauritania. It is one of the largest cities in the Sahara.