Mauritania

Most of Mauritania is Sahara: wind-scoured plateaus, gravel plains and long ridges of dune running towards the Atlantic. In the Adrar, sandstone escarpments shelter palm groves, and the Richat Structure, a worn dome of concentric rock rings, is best seen from orbit. The one permanent river, the Senegal, waters sorghum and rice along the southern edge. Offshore, the cold Canary Current feeds rich fishing grounds, and the shallows of the Banc d’Arguin shelter vast flocks of wintering shorebirds.

Rock paintings of cattle and giraffes recall a greener Sahara. The ruins of Koumbi Saleh are thought to mark a capital of ancient Ghana, the gold-trading empire of the Sahel. In the eleventh century Sanhaja Berbers from this desert launched the Almoravid movement, which went on to rule Morocco and Muslim Spain. Caravan towns such as Chinguetti and Ouadane prospered on salt, gold and scholarship, and families there still guard libraries of old manuscripts. France ruled the territory from Saint-Louis, and independence came in November 1960.

Poetry is the most prized art, and griot families sing it to the tidinit lute and the ardin, a harp played only by women. Moorish herders share the country with Fulani, Soninke and Wolof farmers along the river. Guests are poured three rounds of strong mint tea. The economy rests on iron ore from Zouérat, hauled to Nouadhibou on trains more than two kilometres long, on fish and octopus, and on gold from the Tasiast mine.