Mauritania country guide — reviewed 26 October 2026 Reading and current context The ten topic sections include their own source links. Additional references: geography: NASA Earth Observatory · Richat Structure https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/richat-structure-92071/ history: History of Mauritania · overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mauritania language: Constitution · article 6 (2012 translation; subsequently amended) https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Mauritania_2012 culture: UNESCO · Mahadra knowledge transmission https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/mahadra-a-community-system-for-transmission-of-traditional-knowledge-and-oral-expressions-01960 economy: World Bank · Mauritania overview https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/country/mauritania politics: IPU Parline · Mauritania National Assembly https://data.ipu.org/parliament/MR/MR-LC01/ nature: UNESCO · Banc d’Arguin National Park https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/506/ food: Mauritanian cuisine · overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritanian_cuisine landmarks: UNESCO · Ancient Ksour https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/750/ people: UNHCR · Mauritania https://www.unhcr.org/where-we-work/countries/mauritania https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/02/12/ethnicity-discrimination-and-other-red-lines/repression-human-rights-defenders https://data.ipu.org/parliament/MR/MR-LC01/ https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mauritania https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mauritania/safety-and-security https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Mauritania_2012 The 2012 constitutional translation is used for article 6 language provisions, not the later parliamentary structure. The Senate was abolished in 2017. UNESCO's four Ancient Ksour are one serial property, not four inscriptions. Banc d'Arguin supports migrant wintering/feeding and resident breeding birds. NASA describes Richat as an eroded dome rather than an impact crater. Legal abolition in 1981 and criminal laws in 2007/2015 did not end exploitation. The linked Arabic course introduces general Arabic, not specifically Hassaniya. The source links cover the guide's reading, not a guarantee of current access. Official UK advice checked on 26 October 2026 warns against travel to parts of Mauritania, with separate regional restrictions. It also warns about riding the iron ore train. Consult current advice rather than treating pins as itineraries. Map provenance and limitations The national outline is the MR feature retained from public/countries.geojson, the site's generalised Natural Earth-derived map. No regional boundaries are added. Retained input: scripts/mauritania-outline-source.geojson. Natural Earth geometry is public domain: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/ Twelve settlement centres are curated in scripts/mauritania-map-places.json. Coordinates and sight tuples use [longitude, latitude]. Rosso's centre lies about 101 metres outside the generalised Senegal River boundary; the centre is retained rather than moved to fit the outline. Banc d'Arguin's landscape pin is in coastal marine shallows, appropriately outside the land polygon. The sights map does not show the exact boundaries of either park or World Heritage property. These points identify places for learning, not entrances or routes. Offline rebuild: node scripts/build-mauritania-map.mjs Check: node scripts/test-mauritania-guide.cjs Published routes and all ten live quiz topics: MAURITANIA_BASE_URL=https://worldly.academy MAURITANIA_VERIFY_QUIZ=1 node scripts/test-mauritania-guide.cjs Reviewed quiz wording https://ami.mr/en/archives/12844 https://ihl-in-action.icrc.org/country/mauritania All eighty source questions are preserved in a fixture copied from the unchanged seed-african-batch1.mjs. Twenty-four read-time corrections clarify desert and rainfall descriptions, Kediet ej Jill, disputed Koumbi Saleh identification, languages and poetry, historical G5 Sahel framing, gas development, agriculture, bird migration, restoration, couscous and social identities. They preserve lesson and question IDs and require no database changes. Photographs The guide reuses ten existing, credited Mauritania images from /images/facts-africa/mr/. No new third-party photographs were downloaded. The food photo shows fish for sale, not a prepared meal; the nature image is a satellite view, and the politics image depicts the presidential palace. Photographs record their capture context and do not establish present conditions. geography: The Sahara in the Adrar region, Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/geography.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sahara_desert_Adrar_Province_Mauritania.jpg Radosław Botev, CC BY 3.0 pl, via Wikimedia Commons history: A street in the old town of Chinguetti, Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/history.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinguetti_old_town_street.jpg Radosław Botev, CC BY 3.0 pl, via Wikimedia Commons language: Pupils taking Qur’an lessons, Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/language.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Madrasah_pupils_in_Mauritania.jpg Ferdinand Reus from Arnhem, Holland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons culture: A music festival in Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/culture.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Un_festival_de_musique_en_Mauritanie_contre_lextr%C3%A9misme_(5866134367).jpg Magharebia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons economy: The iron ore train at Choum, Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/economy.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iron_Ore_Train_-_Choum,_Mauritania.jpg Ben Kawam, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons politics: The presidential palace in Nouakchott, Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/politics.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mauritania-presidential-palace-Le-Palais-Pr%C3%A9sidentiel-Nouakchott.jpg Ivik93, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons nature: The Banc d’Arguin coast seen from a satellite, Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/nature.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bancdarguin_oli_2019362.jpg NASA Earth Observatory, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons food: Fish sellers in Nouakchott, Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/food.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fish_market_in_Nouakchott_-_Mauritania.jpg Uzabiaga, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons landmarks: The ruins of old Ouadane, Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/landmarks.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ouadane_1997_07.jpg LBM1948, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons people: A street market in Nouakchott, Mauritania /images/facts-africa/mr/people.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nouakchott_street_market.jpg Maxim VanBest Dynasty from Kathmandu, Nepal, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons