Name: Geography Now! MAURITANIA
Uploaded: 2020-03-28T10:44:31.000Z
Duration: 11 min 3 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Very few people know anything about Mauritania

Strangers from a vibrant background with forbidden actions that linger hidden in the sands lost in time.

Whoa, that sounded like the preface of a romance novel.

Well that's one more thing I can add to the list of things to pursue in case Geography Now! crashes and burns.

This country usually ranks in the top 10-ish least visited countries in the world

And when I hear that the gears in my head start spinning

By the end of this episode you'll want more of Mauritania!

Mauritania derives its name from the Berber kingdom of Mauretania from the third century BC

And since then they developed an interesting civil layout.

First of all, the country is located in north-western Africa

Bordered by Senegal, Mali, Algeria and depending on where you stand on the dispute, Western Sahara.

Which is mostly administered by Morocco except for this small portion inland by the separatist rebels

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and effectively cutting off the entire Atlantic coast from Mauritania

It's a long story we talked about it a really long time ago in the Algeria episode

Wow back in the days when I was doing all the animations and motion graphics

No actually I found Peader, Vincent and Jared and they did such great jobs didn't they Ken?

Otherwise, the country is divided into 15 regions or wilaya

However the capital and largest city: Nouakchott

Which means "Place of winds" is made up of three in itself:

Otherwise the next largest cities are Nouadhibou and Rosso which is located in the south.

And the three largest airports are of course Nouakchott-Oumtounsy International

On that note though, Nouakchott is kind of like the starting point of the trans west-African coastal highway.

A ridiculously long and partially unpaved road that passes through twelve coastal states of west Africa.

Otherwise one thing Mauritania is famous for is their national railway.

Owned and operated by the mining and industrial company.

It's a single 704 kilometer line that links the local iron mining centre of Zouérat

With the port of Nouahibou, Fderik and Choum.

There used to be a tunnel through Choum but the S.A.D.R separatists weren't too happy

This line has one of the longest trains in the world with over 200 carts most of which transport iron ores

Nouadhibou also has disputably the largest ship graveyard in the world

Dropped off by various outsiders that bribed the local officials and today over 300 of them dot the beaches.

Speaking of which, some notable places of interest might include:

Kumbi Saleh which was once the capital of the Ghana Empire.

Oh and I forgot to mention that donkey carts are like, everywhere.

Now if you don't know anything about Mauritania, it's probably like the most Saharan country you can get.

Like literally almost the entire country is covered in sand and sparse oasis.

First of all, with over a million square kilometers, about 90% of the country is dry desert

with generally flat plains considered in both the Maghres and Sahel regions of Africa.

In the center of two small ridges of mountains, the Tagant and Adrar are around.

A little further up north you find the tallest peak: Kediet Ej Jill, all along the way to the southern border is

the longest and only permanent river, the Senegal River, shared along with Senegal.

And the largest lake is probably either the D'aleg or the lake Rkiz, however they fluctuate in size

So either one of them could be a winner as well as this huge reservoir next to M'bout

Back to the A'drar ridge though, the coolest natural landmark probably in all of Mauritania lives hidden,

right in between the sands, the Eye of the Sahara, also known as the Richat Structure.

It's too big to see on land but from space this forty kilometer wide monster has been a curiosity...

Otherwise most wildlife is found in the south along the border with Senegal.

Like the Banc D'arguin National park, bird watching is popular here with sandpipers and flamingos.

You can also find wolves and the national animal, the African lion.

And once again, Noah is not here to fill in as my co-host for the physical geography section.

Uhh I don't know, you guys remember Nick from the Comoros episode, right?

Uh Nick how would you like to fill in for this segment?

Uh, but I thought you were saving me for the Mauritius episode?

Eh, why not give the subscribers a little taste of what's coming up in the next episode.

Mauritania's economy is primarily driven by the mining and agricultural sectors.

As well as a new petroleum industry offshore in the decently sized Chinguetti oil field.

One resource though that they are definitely not in short supply of though: Wind

Mauritania is located in the heart of the Harmattan territory

For those of you who don't know, the Harmattan is a famous dry wind of the Saharan Desert.

It comes between November and March. These winds pick up dust storms easily and can even cause nose bleeds and cracked skin if exposed for too long.

Ugh! Stay hydrated and bring some lotion.

In the south though, the weather's a little better. This is the region where most of the crops are grown

and where fish are caught. The coasts of Mauritania are actually some of the best fishing spots in the world.

Some dishes from Mauritania might include things like...

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Geography Now! MAURITANIA

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