Things to see and do Ouadane

The city has 8 symbols that you may not visit all of: the street of the 40-Savants, the House of Arms, the new mosque, the fortifications, the old mosque, the three houses of the city's founders, the fortified well and, finally, the two towers erected to control access to the well.

Good plan: in the house of Haj Yacoub, stand on the balcony and enjoy the soothing sound of the wind in the palm trees, while the gaze stretches far out into the desert, towards Chinguetti...

Ouadane was finally abandoned for 3 reasons: the cement (banco) was dissolving under the rain, termites were making the roofs collapse and finally the wind. In the lower part of the old city, to avoid quarrels concerning the delimitation of plots of land in case the sand would cover the enclosures, the foundations of these are 2 meters deep, thus preventing any dispute!

The ancient city was the object of restorations with the drip, according to the budgets received. In 2002, Portuguese funding allowed the rehabilitation of the mosque, the Rue des 40-Savants and some houses. Elsewhere, many walls and facades are in unstable balance. Fatalistically, the guide will tell you that it has been like this for so many years, so why worry? The guide will prove to be indispensable, because the points of interest are numerous and difficult to spot by a neophyte. It is easy to get lost in this gigantic labyrinth, which is not suitable for people with reduced mobility.

Several private libraries exist in Ouadane. You will discover there superb manuscripts. One of the most interesting is certainly that of Sidi Mohamed Ould Abidin Sidi (✆ +222 44 95 52 10). He likes to repeat that the conservation of these treasures faces many obstacles, the first of which is himself! So there is no reason to blame him for showing only manuscripts that are only 2 or 3 centuries old: he has the rightness of mind to keep the oldest ones safe, to show them only to researchers. Who can blame him?