Chinguetti, Mauritania – Relentless desertification threatens to bury Chinguetti, a historic Mauritanian town famed for its ancient libraries and designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, prompting a race against time to preserve its cultural legacy. Sand dunes are now reaching the windows of buildings in the centuries-old settlement, a stark illustration of the accelerating environmental challenges facing the Sahel region.
Chinguetti, reportedly founded in AD777, flourished as a vital trading post, its libraries accumulating a wealth of manuscripts brought by merchants from across the region and, according to oral tradition, salvaged from the submerged settlement of Abweir. Today, the number of family-run libraries has dwindled from an estimated 30 to a handful, largely due to emigration during droughts in the 1960s and 70s, and a lack of tourism revenue. Residents lament that UNESCO recognition has not yielded sustained financial support, with promised funding from public and private sources remaining unfulfilled.
“Sadly, I see that Europeans are more interested in chinguetti than Arabs or even Mauritanian officials [but] Chinguetti is in distress,” says resident Islam, highlighting the urgent need for broader engagement in preservation efforts.
The Madrid-based nonprofit Terrachidia, in collaboration with Mauritania’s cultural authorities and the Spanish government’s development agency, has begun restoration work on several libraries, employing local builders and conventional techniques to maintain the town’s aesthetic and protect the manuscripts. A 2024 cultural heritage project also introduced schoolchildren to the ksar (fortified village) through educational activities.
“It was fantastic,” said Mamen Moreno, Terrachidia’s co-founder and a spanish landscape architect. “Some children had never been there before although they have always lived in Chinguetti.” Moreno emphasizes that preservation requires revitalization: “Cities, like houses, are preserved when they are inhabited.”
With as much as 90% of Mauritania classified as desert or semi-desert, the future of Chinguetti-and its irreplaceable collection of knowledge-hangs in the balance.
