47 Fun Facts About Mauritania

What is the capital and largest city of Mauritania?

Nouakchott, purpose-built as the capital shortly before independence, is home to roughly a quarter of all Mauritanians.

Which ocean forms Mauritania's western border?

The Atlantic Ocean washes Mauritania's roughly 750 km western coastline; every other border is a land border.

Roughly what share of Mauritania's territory is Saharan desert?

About 90% of Mauritania lies within the Sahara; most people live in the Sahelian south and the river valley.

What is Mauritania's official full name?

The country is styled the Islamic Republic of Mauritania; Islam is the state religion and nearly all citizens are Sunni Muslim.

What is the official language of Mauritania?

Arabic became the sole official language under the 1991 constitution, which ended French's official status.

What is the name of the local dialect spoken by most Mauritanians?

Hassaniya, the Arabic dialect of the Moors, takes its name from the Beni Hassan tribe and carries many Berber loanwords.

Mauritania's name comes from an ancient Berber kingdom that lay where?

The Berber kingdom of Mauretania lay far to the north on the Mediterranean, centred on what is now northern Morocco, and later became a Roman province.

Which 11th-century Berber movement rose from Mauritania's deserts to build an empire reaching Spain?

The Almoravids, Sanhaja Berbers from the Sahara, founded Marrakesh around 1070 and ruled Morocco and Muslim Spain by the 1090s.

The Char Bouba War of 1644-1674 was the last failed indigenous effort to repel which invaders?

The victorious Beni Hassan became the top stratum of Moorish society and gave their name to the local dialect.

Mauritania was colonised in the early 20th century as part of which colonial federation?

Mauritania was administered within French West Africa (AOF), becoming a full colony of that federation in 1920 after Xavier Coppolani's 1901 mission.

Mauritania became independent in which year?

Mauritania gained independence from France on 28 November 1960, and 28 November is its national day.

The capital was chosen while still little more than what?

Nouakchott was little more than a fortified fishing village (ksar) when picked as the future capital in the late 1950s; city construction began in 1958.

Who was Mauritania's first president, ousted in a bloodless coup in 1978?

Moktar Ould Daddah, president from independence, was deposed in a bloodless coup in July 1978 after a costly desert war drained the treasury.

Mauritania annexed part of which neighbour in 1976, then withdrew in 1979?

Mauritania took the southern third of Western Sahara (Tiris al-Gharbiyya) in 1976 and renounced it in 1979 after Polisario raids; Morocco then occupied it.

Which colonel ruled Mauritania for 21 years until a coup in August 2005?

Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, in power since 1984, was overthrown in August 2005 while attending the funeral of Saudi King Fahd.

In 1999 Mauritania became one of only a few Arab League members to formally recognise which country?

Mauritania opened full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999, joining Egypt and Jordan; it froze them during the 2009 Gaza war and severed them in 2010.

Mauritania's first fully democratic multi-candidate presidential election was held in which year?

The March 2007 vote, won by Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, was the first free multi-candidate presidential election; a coup removed him in August 2008.

Which general led the 2008 coup and then won presidential elections in 2009 and 2014?

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz seized power in August 2008, won the 2009 and 2014 presidential votes, and was jailed for illicit enrichment in December 2023.

The 2019 election of Mohamed Ould Ghazouani was notable as what?

He was re-elected for a second term in June 2024.

Slavery in Mauritania has been officially abolished how many times?

In 1905, 1981 and 2007, yet the Global Slavery Index still estimated 90,000 enslaved people in 2018.

Which two groups together make up about 70 percent of Mauritania's population?

The Haratin (Black Moors) and Bidhan (White Moors) together form about 70% of Mauritanians; sub-Saharan peoples such as the Halpulaar and Soninke make up the rest.

Mauritania expelled some 70,000 black citizens during a 1989 conflict with which neighbour?

The 1989 Mauritania-Senegal conflict began with a grazing dispute at Diawara on the river border; tens of thousands of black Mauritanians were deported to Senegal.

What is the highest peak in Mauritania?

Kediet ej Jill, an iron-rich mountain beside the mining town of Zouérat, reaches 915 metres, the highest point in Mauritania.

The Richat Structure in the Adrar Plateau is nicknamed what?

The Richat Structure is nicknamed the Eye of the Sahara (or Eye of Africa); its concentric rings span about 40 km and stand out from orbit.

What is the name of the vast dune region in Mauritania's northeast, known as the 'Empty Quarter'?

El Djouf, a basin of dunes and salt flats in Mauritania's northeast running into Mali, is so empty it is called the country's 'Empty Quarter'.

Which mineral accounted for almost half of Mauritania's exports in the early 2020s?

Iron ore from the Zouérat mines made up almost half of Mauritania's export earnings in the early 2020s, ahead of gold and fish.

The Mauritania Railway links the mines at Zouérat with which port?

The 704 km single-track Mauritania Railway carries iron ore from Zouérat to the Atlantic port of Nouadhibou.

Ore trains on the Mauritania Railway can be how long?

They rank among the longest and heaviest trains in the world, with 200 or more cars.

Mauritania's Banc d'Arguin National Park is best known for hosting what?

More than two million wading birds arrive from Europe, Siberia and Greenland.

What was added to Mauritania's flag in 2017?

Two red stripes, top and bottom, were added after an August 2017 referendum; they honour the blood shed defending the country.

What colour is the field of the Mauritanian flag?

The Mauritanian flag has a green field, the colour of Islam, bearing a gold crescent and star.

Mauritanian traditional music is performed by hereditary musicians known as what?

The iggawen are Mauritania's hereditary caste of Moorish musicians, playing the tidinit lute and the ardin harp for noble patrons.

The ardin, a harp-like Mauritanian instrument, is traditionally played by whom?

The ardin is played by women of the musician caste; singer Dimi Mint Abba, an ardin player, carried Mauritanian music to world audiences.

Mauritanian mint tea, called atay, is traditionally served in how many rounds?

The ritual symbolises hospitality.

The Mauritanian practice of leblouh involves what?

Leblouh is the force-feeding of girls with milk and porridge to make them plump, because in parts of Mauritania heavier women are considered beautiful.

Which 1997 science-fiction film was partly shot in Mauritania?

The Fifth Element's opening scenes, set in Egypt in 1914, were shot in the Mauritanian desert; Sissako's Oscar-nominated Timbuktu was also filmed there.

Mauritania qualified for which tournament in 2019, seven years after being ranked fourth-worst in the world?

Mauritania reached the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 2019, having been ranked fourth-worst in the world by FIFA in 2012.

Into how many regions (wilaya) is Mauritania divided?

Mauritania has had 15 regions (wilayas) since the capital Nouakchott was split into three regions in 2014, each headed by a wali.

What is the currency of Mauritania?

The ouguiya, introduced in 1973 to replace the CFA franc, is divided into five khoums, making it one of only two non-decimal currencies in the world.

Which country borders Mauritania to the northeast?

Algeria touches Mauritania's northeastern corner along a border of about 460 km; Western Sahara lies to the north and Mali to the east.

Roughly how many people lived in Mauritania as of 2021?

Mauritania's population was about 4.6 million in 2021, spread across a country roughly the size of Egypt, one of the lowest densities in the world.

Nouakchott is a principal selling place for which unusual Saharan commodity?

Nouakchott's dealers trade meteorites gathered from the Sahara, the 'Northwest Africa' finds prized by collectors, making the city one of the main markets for them.

Along with Pulaar and Soninke, which language is recognised as a national language of Mauritania?

The 1991 constitution names Wolof, Pulaar and Soninke as national languages, spoken by Mauritania's sub-Saharan communities along the Senegal River.

When construction of Nouakchott began in 1958, the new capital was designed to house how many people?

Nouakchott was planned for just 15,000 residents; Sahel droughts from the 1970s drove hundreds of thousands to it, and it passed a million by the 2010s.

In which year did UNESCO list Chinguetti, Ouadane, Tichitt and Oualata as a World Heritage Site?

UNESCO inscribed the four ancient ksour in 1996 as relics of trans-Saharan caravan trade; Chinguetti's manuscript libraries are slowly being buried by advancing dunes.

The square minaret of Chinguetti's Friday Mosque is capped with five finials made from what?

Five ostrich eggs cap the finials of the square minaret; the dry-stone mosque dates from the 13th-14th century, when Chinguetti was a trans-Saharan trading hub.

The 1,100 km 'Road of Hope' links Nouakchott with which town in Mauritania's far east?

The Road of Hope runs about 1,100 km east from Nouakchott through Boutilimit, Aleg and Kiffa to Néma, near the Malian border.