Banc d'Arguin National Park

Where the Sahara meets the Atlantic, the shallows of the Banc d'Arguin teem with life: millions of migratory shorebirds from northern Europe winter on its mudflats and islets, among the greatest such gatherings on the planet. Imraguen fishermen still work these waters in time-honoured fashion, famously aided by dolphins that drive mullet toward their nets, and sea turtles graze the seagrass beds. UNESCO inscribed the Mauritanian park as natural World Heritage in 1989.