Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata

Four stone towns anchor Mauritania's side of the old Saharan caravan roads: Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata, founded in the 11th and 12th centuries as resting points for camel trains and rising into centres of Islamic scholarship. Behind their square-minaret mosques, patio houses press along narrow lanes, and ancient libraries still guard desert manuscripts. UNESCO inscribed the ksour in 1996 as monuments to a nomadic world's urban outposts.