Monuments to visit Oualata

Like the three other ancient cities of Mauritania, Ouadane, Chinguetti and Tichitt, Oualata is home to treasures in its library, preserved by chance and with care by the inhabitants through time, sometimes with the means at hand! In the room to the right are old manuscripts belonging to the four families of Oualata. Opposite is the library of Taleb Boubekar, traditional chief of the city, who died around 1915. This library is full of centuries old writings, vestiges of another time.

There is no need to show you the way to get there: perched on a promontory, you can see it clearly while you are still 30 minutes from Oualata. Built in 1912, it successively housed the French army during the pacification of the region, then political prisoners from the independence of Mauritania. Since 1990, the authorities have closed this prison. The triangular building is impressive and appears to be in a perfect state of preservation, seen from the outside. Inside, around the courtyard, the prisoners' cells are scattered. It is hard to imagine what the conditions of the men incarcerated here were like not so long ago. A small opening allowing a little light to pass through, a living space reduced to a minimum, because the cells were crowded, the diseases, the heat and the mistreatment must have made the life expectancy very limited. One comes out of this fort with shivers down one's spine.

It is possible to admire Oualata by taking the stairs on the left, just after the entrance of the fort. You are then on the roof of the cells! Going back down from the fort towards Oualata, on the right, the French cemetery shelters a dozen graves, among which the one of Bonnel de Mézières who administered the region at the beginning of the ^XXth century. Passionate about archaeology, he contributed greatly to the excavations carried out at Aoudaghost and Koumbi Saleh.

Warning: Before considering a visit, inquire about the feasibility of the site with local tourism professionals.