Western Sahara guide — checked 29 October 2026

Scope and history
United Nations, Non-Self-Governing Territories: https://www.un.org/dppa/decolonization/en/nsgt/western-sahara
MINURSO, background: https://minurso.unmissions.org/en/background
African Union, Sahrawi Republic: https://go.au.int/en/member-states/sahrawi-republic
The guide outline uses OpenStreetMap contributors' Western Sahara relation 2559126, ODbL 1.0, retrieved 29 October 2026: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/2559126 . This guide-specific outline includes the coastal areas absent from Worldly's existing EH world-map feature. It is a generalised learning reference, not a statement of sovereignty or a current control map. Tarfaya is in neighbouring Morocco and is explicitly marked regional context. Settlement pins are approximate; La Güera is a former settlement and its coastal point lies just beyond the generalised coastline.

Water maps
North Atlantic Ocean and land: Natural Earth 1:10m marine polygons and land, public domain. https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/ The full Natural Earth North Atlantic feature is retained and land and islands removed; its equatorial limit is a geographic reference, not a claim. Zoom out to follow the complete source shape.
Sous River: complete Natural Earth 1:10m river centreline, public domain. This river lies in Morocco and is regional context, not a watercourse within Western Sahara.
Saguia el Hamra: OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0, relation 5822918, retrieved 29 October 2026: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/5822918 . The complete mapped relation is retained without border clipping, but it may omit headwaters, tributaries or segments. It is intermittent; linework is a reference rather than a claim of continuous flow. NASA describes the lower channel ending in a lake and sand: https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/the-hamra-river-and-el-aaiun-88001/
Reference shape files do not show present water levels or navigation boundaries.

Wetlands: Ramsar, Baie d'Ad-Dakhla: https://rsis.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/rsiswp_search/exports/Ramsar-Sites-annotated-summary-Morocco.pdf
Resources: German Environment Agency, Bou Craa case study: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/1410/publikationen/5-06_20200117_oekoressii_morocco_western_sahara_case_study_final_v2.pdf

The ten local topic photographs and their individual author, licence and source links are credited on the guide's reading cards. The Dakhla Bay banner is by bob rayner, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dakhla_bay.jpg