Tagant Plateau - a remarkable natural formation in Mauritania

The place
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The place

In February 2023, three friends and I extensively traveled through Mauritania. For a few days, we explored the Tagant Plateau, a remarkable natural formation located in the eastern part of the country. It is an expansive stony plateau that forms a part of the vast Sahara Desert. The plateau's slopes form cliffs in some places, and several towns are located at the foot of the Tagant Plateau, including Tichit, Moudjéria, and Rachid.

The Tagant region has a total population of about 85,000 people, with some still living as nomads. However, most of the inhabitants are concentrated in a few larger towns such as Tichitt, Tidjikja, and Nbeika, as well as some smaller villages.

The Tagant is a culturally rich region that has played a crucial role in the history of Mauritania. Historically linked by trans-Saharan trade to the Adrar region in the north and the Aoukar Depression in the southeast, numerous traces of the past are still visible today. It is worth visiting not only the important sites of the 17th-19th centuries, such as Tidjikja or Ksar el Barka, but also the ruins of the 11th century metropolis, Aoudaghost, which borders the region to the south. In Akreijit, numerous millennia-old relics can still be seen, and Tichitt is even a World Heritage Site together with Chinguetti, Ouadane, and Oualata.

The region's name is derived from the Berber term for forest, which is appropriate given the plateau's rocky terrain. The Tagant Plateau is one of only two stony plateaus in Mauritania, Adrar being the other. The landscape is characterized by an arid desert climate, but it is not solely made up of rocks and shifting sand dunes. In the Tagant, there are also smaller oases to be discovered, such as the Guelta Matmata, which is home to rare Saharan crocodiles and has a permanent water source. Additionally, there are some tamourts that become lakescapes for months after the rainy season.